Embers
by Holli
Summary: Episode Filler for Hero or continuation of 'Of Moths and Flames' from Jet's and Cathy's points of view. WIP
1. Because We Have to Start Somewhere

(*Author's Note: First, I'd like to thank my beta reader GoldAngel2 for giving this story a good looking over. 

Second, I'd like to give some context for this story. This story is basically a continuation of my last story "Of Moths and Flames" (although, you don't really need to read that one to get this one if you've ever seen the episode "Hero"). In this story, I'll be answering the question of "What happened between Jet and Cathy being picked up the helicopter and that stuff right before the end?"

Just to warn you now, this is going to be a pretty long story. It's also going to be a bit shippy (if the characters cooperate with me - darn characters -_-*). I also change point of views (switching between Cathy and Jet) but I feel that it's fairly obvious when I do this.

Now that I've gotten all that out of the way . . . On to the story!

Embers

The hospital was bustling. There was really no other word to describe it. It wasn't panicked or disorganized or anything like that; there were simply too many people trying to make their way through halls that weren't quite wide enough to accommodate them all. 

It was also loud. Everyone was talking at once and it seemed that every single cart being pushed had at least one squeaky wheel. Phones rang and machines bleeped and, if one listened very closely, one could hear metal tools clinking against metal trays. 

The air was heavy with antiseptics and bleach, but even these powerful odors barely masked the smell of rot, urine, bile and blood. Some people would say that there were other smells, the smells of sickness and death - but those people were a little odd and usually hard to take seriously. 

All in all, St. Mary's was a typical New York hospital but, on that night, it had a rather untypical man in one of its waiting rooms. His name was Jet Link and he was a cyborg. 

Jet had never been fond of hospitals. In the old days (which, from his point of view, hadn't been so long ago), he hadn't liked them for a couple reasons: 1) he couldn't exactly pay for something like hospital care and 2) the doctors always asked questions he couldn't answer unless he'd like to go to jail once he was healed. No matter how bad it got, jail had never been a viable option. 

He still wasn't fond of hospitals, but, thanks to Black Ghost, he had an entirely different reason. Being in a hospital (or any other sort of medical facility) made him think about things that he'd rather not; things that were the subject of many of his nightmares. Just sitting in the waiting room gave him the creeps - the idea of having a doctor actually touch him . . .

That, at least, was something he didn't have to worry about. He'd made it quite clear to the paramedics that he did not want any medical care. Of course, one of the paramedics tried to get him to change his mind, but once Jet had told him that he didn't have insurance either, the paramedic pretty much left him to his own devices. Which was good because he wanted to keep the fact that he was a cyborg to himself - he doubted that most people who take it as calmly as Cathy had. 

And even if he hadn't cared about that, it still wouldn't have done much good to seek a doctor's help anyway. It was a fair bet that none of the doctors in this place had the knowledge or the materials to even think about trying to repair his knee. No, until he could get in touch with Doctor Gilmore, his leg would just have to wait.

Just thinking about it made him feel tired inside. He might have told Cathy during the helicopter ride that he leg would be just fine but he wasn't sure whether or not he believed it himself. Not only did it hurt a whole lot, the wound had been seeping fluid too. Not the rocket fuel (which was a good thing considering how flammable that stuff was), but some kind of pinkish liquid that he couldn't remember the function of. He definitely should have paid closer attention when Doctor Gilmore had explained it.

He looked down at the apron (which Cathy had given him back on the helicopter to wrap around his leg seeing as neither of them could come up with a good reason for Jet to have wires there) and winced. From the look of things, he was still losing fluid. He guessed it was pretty stupid of him to think that it would just stop on it's own - it wasn't like his leg could heal in the conventional way. 

And he didn't dare to try and stop the leak. He remembered vividly what had happened the last time he'd done that to a leg wound*. Oh, he'd been fine for a while before the binding had caused a backup in his system. For a few hours, he hadn't been sure if he was going to be all right or not. If it hadn't been for the others and some quick work by Doctor Gilmore, he knew what the answer to that question would have been.

Considering the fact that he had no way of helping himself if something like that happened now, he didn't want to take that risk unless it was absolutely necessary. He knew that he couldn't exactly afford to keep losing fluid like this but, at the moment, it didn't seem life threatening. It looked like he was going to survive - not that he was enjoying it very much.

He shifted his leg (which hadn't stopped throbbing since he'd staggered to this place after being separate from Cathy) in a futile attempt to make himself more comfortable. Of course, the greatest source of his discomfort was not his leg, but all the people who were in the waiting room with him. If the stares he was getting were any indication, they must have found him very interesting to look at. 

He tried his best to ignore them as he held an old People magazine in front of his face. Jet knew he didn't look so great - what with the fire damage to his clothes and the apron wrapped around his leg that only highlighted the fact that he was injured - but was it really asking too much for people to mind their own business? Didn't they have anything better to do than gape at him?

Taking a quick look over the top of the magazine, he saw that the answer to that question was a resounding 'no.' Only a few people seemed embarrassed enough to look away once they noticed he was watching them and the rest pretended that they didn't notice his scrutiny. He almost asked them what their problem was before deciding that he didn't really want to talk to any of them.

Jet stared back down at the People but didn't bother reading it. There were exactly three reasons for this. The first reason was that, between being frozen for forty years and then fighting Black Ghost, he had absolutely no idea who any of these people were. The second reason was that, even if he had known who they were, he wouldn't have been interested in reading about them anyway - his only interest in Hollywood was watching the occasional movie.

The third reason, and the most important, was the fact that he felt far too edgy to actually concentrate on the words. He'd been sitting around - doing nothing - for almost an hour now. He was being gawked at as if he was some kind of circus freak. He was also fairly sure that if he heard too much more of that horrible elevator music that was being piped into the waiting room, he'd go nuts. 

To top it all off, he had no idea what had happened to Cathy. How long did it take to get looked over by a doctor anyway? She'd looked fine to him! And how the heck was he supposed to find her when the doctor was done with her - use his amazing, non-existent power of telepathy?!

He heard the sound of tearing paper and he stared dumbly at the ripped magazine in his hands for a second before realizing what he'd done.

With a disgusted sigh, he tossed the remains of the magazine on the waiting room table. Okay, that was it. He was done waiting around for someone to tell him what was going on. Jet Link did not just sit around waiting for things to happen. It was time to take some action!

Bracing himself (because he knew that this was going to hurt), he pushed down on the arms of the chair and got to his feet -

- and immediately fell back into his seat with a gasp. Oh, that had not been one of his better ideas! The pain was incredible and he felt nauseous. It almost hurt more now than it had back at the hotel when he'd been carrying Cathy on his back. This was not good. Not good at all.

And it gave him something else to worry about. He knew, without having to try again, that he'd never be able to make it back to his apartment on his own; he could barely stand - walking was completely out of the question. Unless he found Cathy on his own (which would be nearly impossible in his current condition) or he was able to convince someone to take him there (which, considering that New York wasn't exactly known for good Samaritans, probably had about as much chance of happening as Scarl had of coming back to life and taking up ballet), he was stuck here.

"Are you okay?"

The question shook him from his thoughts and Jet turned to face the girl who had asked it. The teenager was sitting a seat away form him, looking concerned. He tried to smile but, between the stress and his general nature, he wasn't able to keep his tongue under control. "Do I look okay to you?"

The girl got a hurt expression on her face and Jet immediately felt guilty. "It's been a rough night." Jet: Master of the Understatement. 

She smiled again, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

His first impulse had been to tell her 'no', but he realized, before the word even formed in his throat, that this was the opportunity he'd been waiting for. And it hadn't even involved ballet-

He gave his head a quick shake to dislodge the thought before making his smile a bit more friendly and giving his answer. "Actually, there is. Could you go up to the desk over there and ask them where Cathy Jenkins is?"

"I could but, " the girls shook her head, looking apologetic, "they wouldn't tell me anything- they're sworn to secrecy." 

This had to be one of the most ridiculous things he'd ever heard (and, living so long with 009, he'd heard some pretty ridiculous things). "What! That's insane."

The girl shrugged. "Unless you're a relative - a blood relative," she clarified, obviously noticing the speculative look on his face, "they can't tell you anything about a patient. It's against the law."

"Oh." So much for that plan. Now what was he going to do?

"If you want, I can find her for you."

The girl sounded way too excited to do this for him and Jet would have raised an eyebrow if he knew how to raise just one. He settled for a long stare before responding. "Why do you want to do this so much?" It seemed odd that a self-absorbed teenager would be so interested in running an errand.

"I'm bored! I've been here almost all night waiting for mom to get out of work and I haven't had anything to do." She looked at him imploringly, obviously expecting some sort of sympathy. When it became apparent to her that Jet wasn't very impressed with her plight, she switched tactics. "I know this hospital like the back of my hand - I could find her easily."

While Jet had his doubts about whether or not the girl could do that, he decided that sending her off couldn't hurt. At the very least, it gave her something to do and, it could happen, she might be able to find Cathy. "All right, you've convinced me."

She smiled widely. "Cool." She plopped herself in the chair next to his. "Just tell me what she looks like and where you last saw her."

"She's taller than you. Blonde, her hair's in a pony tail and she's wearing a maid's uniform. Her eyes are green and she's kind of thin-"

"Is she pretty?"

The question was unexpected and he was caught off guard. The girl's laugh interrupted him before he could come up with a response. 

"Like you're going to say your girlfriend's ugly." She shook her head and started talking again before Jet could tell her that Cathy wasn't his girlfriend. It didn't really matter; it wasn't like he was going to see this kid again and, as long as Cathy never heard about it, he guessed it did no harm for her to think what she wanted.

"Okay, and where did you last see her?"

"The paramedics were talking about bringing her to Dr. Roche. I think he's a lung doctor . . . " or something like that. After he'd told them that he hadn't wanted any medical attention, the paramedics had seemed to forget that he was there and he'd been too busy trying to keep upright on his own to really listen to what they'd said about Cathy.

The girl nodded. "All right, one last thing: what's your name?"

"Why do you want to know?" The instant suspicion in the question was a throwback from the old days and Jet felt a little annoyed with himself. Why wouldn't she want to know his name; if he was in her place, he'd want to know who he was helping.

The girl rolled her eyes and looked at him as if he was the dumbest person on the planet. "So she knows you sent me and that I'm not yanking her around." She didn't say 'duh,' but it was clearly implied. 

"It's Jet."

She made a face before shrugging. "Brett it is." Before Jet had a chance to correct her about his name, she stood and said: "Cathy's as good as found," over her shoulder as she walked away. 

He looked after her for a moment and wondered if she could actually deliver what she had promised. He certainly hoped so - and not just because he'd be stuck here is she couldn't. While Cathy had seemed all right when they parted, he knew how fragile the human body was. And Cathy had inhaled more than her share of smoke . . .

Jet shook his head. It did no good to worry about it: if she was okay, she was okay and if she wasn't, she wasn't. No amount of worrying would change that. He knew that but he found it hard not to worry a little anyway. Cathy had really made an impression on him tonight and he didn't want anything to be wrong with her. 

Of course, even if she hadn't, he'd still worry about her for Jimmy's sake. It was for Jimmy that he'd gone into that building in the first place. If it had been anyone else but Jimmy's mother, Jet would have trusted the firemen to do their jobs; since it had been his mother, Jet knew he'd never be able to forgive himself if she died while he'd done nothing -

But no one had died and he was sure that Cathy would be just fine. Settling back in the chair and crossing his arms behind his head, he tried to relax. There was really nothing else to do but wait and hope for the best. Although he was never completely happy with a plan that involved waiting and hoping, he knew that he had no other option at the moment. 

The noises of the waiting room began to fade and he felt himself begin to drift away. Since he felt tired and there was really nothing else he could do, he didn't even try to fight it. He only hoped, as he fell into a dose, that Cathy would be there when he woke up. 

To be continued . . .

* This happened in "Land of Reunions" and "Farewell, My Friend" (I believe, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)


	2. Hospitals Can be Tricky

(*Author's Note: Yee-hah! Here it is, my second chappie! Whoo! 

Okay, now that that's done . . . Just some things I've got to say before the chapter starts: 1) I'd like to thank GoldAngel2 for beta reading this for me; 2) I'd also like to thank my reviewers - it's nice to see that there's some interest in this story; and 3) I forgot to mention before that I do not own Jet or anyone else you recognize from Cyborg 009.

I think that's it. Enjoy! *)

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Cathy had been in the examination room for almost forty-five minutes now and she was beginning to feel anxious. Not only was the bill getting higher every minute she sat here (a bill which she'd have to pay herself since she had practically nothing in the way of insurance), but she also had no idea where her son was. 

While she had asked Maria to take care of Jimmy, she had no way of knowing if she was actually doing that. For all she knew, Jimmy was still at Jet's apartment - alone and not knowing what was going on. And that was one of the better scenarios her mind was coming up with.

It didn't help that, on top of everything else, she had to worry about Jet too. She wondered if he was even at the hospital anymore. Although it seemed (with his leg) that he wouldn't be able to make the trip back to his apartment on his own, she had a feeling that he was just stupid enough to try it and just tenacious enough to make it.

She hoped that he was still around. Cathy still hadn't thanked him for saving her life and she was still more than a little concerned about his leg. It didn't take a doctor to realize that his wound needed more than just a dirty apron wrapped around it. Not that Jet had actually used the apron to stop the . . . bleeding; it seemed like all he'd been interested in doing was covering the sparking mess so no one could see it.

He'd assured her that he'd be fine but she wasn't sure if she believed him or not. She remembered how he'd wanted her to leave him back at the hotel; she doubted he would have been so anxious to have her do that unless he thought his injury was serious. It certainly hadn't looked so good the last time she'd seen it . . .

Her thoughts turned away from Jet as the doctor (whose name she couldn't remember but thought started with an R) stopped writing on his pad and began to speak. "Well, Ms. Jenkins, I think that you're going to be just fine." His voice was purely professional but the smile on his dark face smile was friendly.

Although she'd already known that, she couldn't deny that it was good to hear it from a doctor anyway. "That's good to hear, Doctor." 

The doctor nodded. "You were very lucky tonight."

Another thing that she had known already. "Is there anything I should do?" Cathy hoped that whatever she should do didn't involve taking pills or making another doctor's appointment that she couldn't afford to pay for. 

"I suggest taking it easy for the next few days . . . ," the doctor shrugged and added, "If you feel any chest pain or if you have trouble breathing, don't hesitate to come to the ER."

At least a trip to the ER cost less than a doctor's visit. She slid off the paper bench, hoping that her current visit was nearing its end. "Are we through, Doctor? It's getting a bit late."

The doctor gave her an understanding look and nodded. "Yes, I believe so." He stood and opened the door for her. "Have a good night."

"Thank you," Cathy said as she walked out the door and into one of the most crowed halls she'd ever seen. It soon became clear to her that niceties like "please" and "excuse me" were not only a waste of time, but actually a hindrance. In no time, she was pushing and shoving her way through the halls like she had in High School. That had been a long time ago and she thought it was amazing how quickly the technique had came back to her.

Eventually, she made it to the end of the hall and into a waiting room. The waiting room was surprisingly empty (considering how crowed the halls had been) and Cathy snatched the nearest chair. Once she was seated, she propped her check on her hand and thought.

And she certainly had a lot to think about.

She realized that, even if Jet was still in this hospital, she'd never find him in this mess. Would they even let him stay here if he wasn't getting treatment? She wished that she'd asked the paramedics to let him stay with her- knowing, even as she thought it, that they'd been separated long before things were calm enough for her to make any kind of request.

And she still had to call Maria about Jimmy. She doubted that the receptionists would let her use their phones (some people were real jerks about that sort of thing) and she didn't know where the pay phones would be. Feeling around in her pockets, she felt two quarters and smiled; at least she wouldn't have to ask for change. 

Just as she had been about to decide whether to look for Jet or a payphone first, she felt someone tap on her shoulder. Turning around as she stood, Cathy found herself looking at a girl who couldn't have been more than fourteen (if that). The girl ran a hand through her short brown hair and sounded hopeful. "Are you Cathy Jenkins?"

"Yes." Cathy answered, feeling a bit uncertain. She knew she'd never seen this girl before and she wondered how she could possibly know her name.

The girl smiled, looking relieved. "Oh good, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to find you after all."

"What do you want?" The question came out a bit sharper than it really had a right to be, but Cathy didn't care. She was tired, and worried, and she had no time to play games.

If the girl was bothered by Cathy's tone, she showed no sign of it. "Your friend- what was his name? Brett?"

"Jet?" What had he done now?

The girl smiled. "Yeah, Jet. Well, Jet wanted me to find you."

"He did?" She couldn't help asking the question even though she wasn't really that surprised. While she'd been afraid that he was going to leave, she'd been almost as ceratin that he wouldn't. Almost.

"Yeah," the girl had an almost awed look on her face, "He seemed so worried about you; you're lucky to have a nice guy like him."

Cathy opened her mouth to protest that she did not 'have' Jet in any way, shape or form before deciding that she had more important worries than what some kid thought about her love life. She wondered briefly what he'd said to give the girl that idea but didn't give it too much thought as there was still the matter of finding out where he was. 

The girl didn't even wait for her to ask. "He's in the waiting room 5d," she said, pointing towards the double doors that lead into the hallway that Cathy had just escaped from. "If you want, I could take you there."

"That would be wonderful," Cathy said, not lying at all. She'd never been to this hospital before and she had the feeling that, even if she had, she still wouldn't be able to find the place.

"Okay then, just follow me." The girl flashed her another smile before turning around and walking off. She wasn't quite "off like a shot," but Cathy still had to walk a bit faster than she would have liked in order to keep up with her.

Fortunately, the girl never stopped talking and the sound of her voice made her easy to locate whenever Cathy lost sight of her. Unfortunately, the girl's talk mostly had to do with making assumptions about Cathy and Jet's relationship (according to her, they were quite close and probably planning to get married soon - or, more likely, planning on getting eloped). It was obvious that the girl was enjoying herself with the soap opera scenarios she was coming up with, but Cathy wasn't quite as amused.

While Cathy was grateful that the girl had taken the time to find her and knew that she probably didn't mean any harm, she was beginning to feel irritated. Cathy had never enjoyed having anyone laugh at her; never mind a child who was half her age. So it was quite a relief when they finally made it to their destination.

"Well, here it is," the girl said, gesturing grandly towards a closed door. 

"Thank you."

The girl gave a mock bow and smiled again (although, really, it wasn't as if she had ever stopped since Cathy had met her). "You're welcome." As she turned to leave, she couldn't seem to resist tossing one last parting shot over her shoulder. "Oh, and give him a kiss for me too!"

Before Cathy could protest that she wasn't planing to do any such thing, the girl had been swallowed up into the crowded hall. She shook her head and her lips quirked up a little. Well, at least someone was having a good night. 

She opened the door and walked inside. This waiting room was a little more crowed than the last, but Jet was very easy to find. He was dosing in one of the waiting room chairs near the door. Finally seeing him in good light, Cathy was a bit shocked that they'd just let him sit here. His clothes were charred and the apron looked soaked through . . . although, as she came closer, she could see that whatever soaked the apron didn't really look like blood. It was too pink.

His face was still dirty and he looked so weary that she hated to wake him up. But it was about time they got out of here. Reaching forward, she put a hand on Jet's shoulder and gave it a gentle shake. "Jet."

The eye she could see snapped open and, for a moment, she thought she could see fear in it. It faded so quickly that she wasn't even sure it had ever been there as Jet recognized who she was. "Hey Cathy."

"What do you say we get out of here?"

Jet ran a hand through his hair. "I'd love to, but . . ." He trailed off, seeming to want to think of how he wanted to say what he needed to say. 

Cathy had a pretty good idea what his problem was. "Your leg?"

He nodded and looked even more tired than he had before. "I can't even stand on it."

"Why the heck were you trying to stand on it!" What was wrong with that, that boy? 

Jet looked a bit startled at her fierceness and Cathy felt her anger leave her. It seemed that being caught in a hotel fire and then wandering around a hospital wasn't doing anything for her people skills. She hadn't meant to yell at him but it made her so angry that he'd just endanger himself that way when he didn't have to. Honestly, didn't that boy have any sense?

"I was just -"

She cut him off with a sigh. "Never mind." Realizing that her hand was still on his shoulder, she drew it away and sat in the chair next to him. "It doesn't really matter right now." What did matter was finding a payphone and figuring out a way to get him out of here that didn't involve walking. She looked down at her watch; it was almost ten thirty. Funny, it felt later than that.

"Have you heard from Jimmy yet?"

She closed her eyes and sighed again. "No, I haven't; I don't even know where he is." Opening her eyes, she turned to face him. "Is he still at your apartment?"

Jet shook his head. "No, we took him with us to the hotel." He paused for a second and he looked surprised when he spoke again. "How'd you know he was at my apartment anyway?"

If she'd been a little less tired, she might have chuckled at the expression on Jet's face. As it was, she gave him a wry smile. "Where else would he be? In case you haven't noticed, whenever he's not with me or at school, he's with you."

He hmphed at her before shrugging. "I guess that's true."

Cathy wondered if Jet understood how important he was to Jimmy. She wondered if he knew how Jimmy's eyes would light up whenever he talked about Jet. If he didn't, it was about time he knew! 

"He really likes you, Jet."

This declaration seemed to make him uncomfortable; he was beginning to fidget. She smiled a bit on the inside. He'd just risked his life to save her from a raging inferno - no problem at all, acted like he did it every day - but hearing her say that Jimmy liked him seemed to throw him off his stride. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Cathy decided to take pity on the both of them.

"Look, I've got to find a payphone. Will you be all right?"

Jet sat back in his chair. "I think I'll make it."

Standing up, Cathy nodded. "All right."

Now to find a pay phone. She only hoped, as she left the waiting room, that she'd be able to find her way back again.  
  
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To be continued . . .  
  



	3. A Phone Call and a Deus ex Machina

(*Author's note: " . . . and it was decreed that there would be a third chapter: a chapter three."

So, here is chapter three. I don't really have any special notes except to thank GoldAngel2 for beta reading this chapter and to thank everyone who reviewed so far (which include: Starlight16, Wolfwood11, Augusta, and GoldAngel2). 

. . . I think that's it. Without further adeui, on with chapter 3! *)

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A Cathy walked out of the waiting room, she couldn't help but wonder what she'd done to deserve this. All she'd wanted out of life was for it to go smoothly and to be as normal as possible - and while her life hadn't been so smooth before tonight, this current bump in it was completely insane. Things like this did not happen to real people in real life and she certainly didn't remember signing up to be an extra in the Twilight Zone. 

Well, no, she thought as she made her way though the hall, if this was an episode of the Twilight Zone, I'd be the star and Rod Serling would have shown up by now. 

But it wasn't and she wasn't and he hadn't. She was just someone who was in over her head, who had found herself in a bazaar situation, and who had seen something so incredible that she was still having a hard time believing it. Jet Link was a cyborg and had saved her from certain death. If someone had told her that a day ago, she wouldn't have known which part was harder to believe.

Not that it really mattered how hard she found it to believe; it would still remain true no matter how much she deluded herself. No, she was simply going to have to accept that the world was completely and utterly insane and move on from there.

Easier said than done, of course. But, once every thing had settled down and she had time to think, she was confident that she'd be able to sort it out. At the moment, though, she had a payphone to find.

As if in answer to this thought, Cathy spotted the row of payphones and she sighed in relief. Finally. Reaching into her pockets, she pulled out her quarters and dropped the first one down the slot. She heard the dial tone and punched in Maria's number. The phone was a tad too loud and the ringing hurt her ears but she didn't want to waste time fiddling with the volume controls. 

After four rings, Cathy started to worry. She didn't know what she'd do if Jimmy wasn't there - she didn't even have the first idea of where to look. All she knew was that Jimmy had gone with Jet to the hotel and after that . . .

"Please, let him be there," she whispered, hoping that God was interested in helping her out a second time tonight. It seemed, by the tenth ring, that He wasn't.

Cathy had been just about to hang up the phone and try calling Jet's apartment, just in case he'd gone there afterwards, when she heard the unmistakable click of a phone being picked up. "Hello." The voice sounded impossibly sick and weak.

Cathy smiled, recognizing it immediately. It was Maria's 'sick-old-lady' voice that she used on tele-marketers to guilt them into leaving her alone. She wasn't sure why Maria would be doing that this late at night, but then, Maria had always been strange. "Hi Maria."

"Cathy?" Maria's voice brightened instantly. "Are you all right, dear?" Usually Cathy couldn't stand it when Maria called her that, but, at the moment, Cathy was so glad that she actually got a hold of her that she didn't care. 

"I'm fine. Is Jimmy there?"

Maria laughed. "Yes he is, and worried about his mom."

It felt like a great weight had been lifted off her chest and Cathy felt like she could breathe again. "Could you put him on please?"

There was silence for a second and then: "Mommy!"

Cathy wished that she was there so she could hug him, so she could see him. "Jimmy, are you okay, baby?"

"Yeah, but I'm not a baby!" He sounded indignant and Cathy laughed a little on the inside. Jimmy was just fine.

"I know, honey."

"I love you, Mom."

"I love you too." Cathy realized that she was crying and she wiped her eyes with her sleeve. She wasn't sure why she was crying, but she had something she had to take care of before she broke down and she didn't want Maria to hear the tears in her voice. "Can you give the phone back to Maria?"

There was another moment of silence before Maria answered. "Here I am."

"Could you keep Jimmy for the rest of the night?" 

Maria sounded concerned. "Is everything okay?"

Cathy took a deep breath to steady her voice. "Everything's fine. I just have some things I need to take care of."

"As long as you're sure . . ." 

"I'm positive."

"All right," Maria didn't sound convinced, but she seemed willing to let the matter drop. "I'll bring him back around noon-ish. Is that good for you?"

"That would be fine."

"Good bye Cathy." In the background, she could just hear Jimmy yelling: "Goodbye, Mom."

Cathy swallowed hard. "Good bye," she whispered. The line went dead and she hung up the phone with a shaking hand. Of course, by that time, all of her was shaking, and she felt like she could collapse right then and there. She was so tired. But she wasn't going to do that - she had to get back to Jet and tell him that Jimmy was okay; he'd want to know.

First, she had to find the waiting room again. She wandered down the hall in a daze, not caring who saw her cry. Just thinking about Jimmy and how close she had come to never seeing him again brought fresh waves of tears to her eyes and it seemed like she could think of nothing else. She didn't even know why she was crying; she was alive and well and she would see Jimmy tomorrow and everything was going to be just fine.

It did no good. She just couldn't stop herself and by the time she made it back to the right waiting room, she knew that she was a mess. When she came back to where Jet was, she didn't even look at him as she sat down in the seat next to his. She was vaguely aware of Jet asking what was wrong and she wondered if the concern in his voice was for Jimmy or herself. 

Either way, she hated to make him worry after what he'd done for her, but she just couldn't force the words out. Trying to talk made her cry harder. In the back of her mind, Cathy knew that if she wasn't so tired, she would have been absolutely mortified to be crying like this- especially since there wasn't anything wrong! 

Before she realized what was happening, Jet had his arms around her. It was an awkward hug (like he wasn't sure of what he was doing) and the arms of the chair dug into her ribs a little as she cried into his shoulder, but she welcomed it anyway. She couldn't remember the last time that someone had just held her this way. 

He didn't smell very good - all smoke and sweat, but he was warm and she could hear the steady thumping of his heart. It was comforting and she felt tired, so very tired . . .   
  


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Jet stared down at the sleeping woman in his arms in faint disbelief. If someone had told him this morning that he'd have Cathy Jenkins, the president of the 'Jet Link Hate Club,' sleeping in his arms, he would have laughed his head off. Now that she was, the last thing he felt like doing was laughing. 

Despite the tear trails still on her face, she looked peaceful; Jet wished that he could feel so at ease. She hadn't told him what was wrong but he had a good idea. He didn't know much about Cathy - the closest they had come to a civilized conversation before tonight had consisted of Cathy sniping at him - but he knew enough to know that there was only one thing that could make her so upset: something must have happened to Jimmy.

Jet liked 'Jimmy-the-Kid' a lot more than he was comfortable admitting. If he hadn't, he would have stopped hanging out with the kid after the first time his mother yelled at him. He'd said a few times, in private, that while he liked the kid, he wasn't worth that kind of aggravation, but had never really meant it. Something about Jimmy had made him willing to stick it out and Jet wasn't really sure what it was. 

Most people said they liked children because they reminded them of themselves. Jimmy wasn't anything like Jet had been when he'd been that age - by that time, Jet had seen enough of the world to know that trust was dangerous and that very few people had any goodness in them at all. Thanks to Cathy, Jimmy had been spared those lessons. So it wasn't that . . .

He shrugged to himself. Maybe he just liked seeing the kid's eyes light up when he told him stories. What difference did it make? All that mattered was that he did care about the kid and that he wanted to know if something had happened.

Jet focused his attention on Cathy, intent on waking her up, and hesitated. He had to know if Jimmy was all right, but he didn't want to wake her. She looked like she could use the rest and . . . he kind of liked holding her. Well, not the actual 'holding her' part, his back would have a serious crick in it if he sat this way too much longer, but the feeling that he got from being so close to her. He wasn't sure where this feeling was coming from- this warm feeling, like he got when he watched TV with Jimmy earlier (although, what he was feeling now was a bit different than that) - but he thought he liked it . . .

Jet shook his head, slightly disgusted with himself. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about stuff like this. "Cathy?" When that didn't wake her up, he gave her a little shake.

Cathy opened her eyes and stared at him. For a second, she looked confused before realizing where she was. She pulled away from him, looking a bit embarrassed. Jet tried not to let that bother him.

"Are you okay now?"

She nodded and gave him a small smile. "I'm fine. And Jimmy's fine too."

Jet couldn't deny that it was a relief to hear that Jimmy was all right. It didn't explain what Cathy's crying jag had been about; he was curious but he decided not to pry- it was really her business, not his. She didn't seem to want to talk about it anyway.

Neither of them spoke for a few minutes and Jet tried to find away to ask her if she had any ideas about what they should do without upsetting her. Just as he'd been about to speak, he was interrupted by the arrival of a somewhat familiar face.

"You're still here!"

Jet turned his attention to the girl, noticing in the corner of his eye that Cathy was wiping self-consciously at her eyes. Maybe his good Samaritan would be willing to help them again; he didn't really have any good ideas about how to get out of here and, right now, he figured that listening to what she had to say wouldn't hurt. "Yeah, we're kind of stuck."

The girl looked intrigued. "Oh?" She sat in the chair across from him, smiling. "What's the problem? Maybe I can help."

Jet briefly described their problem and the girl nodded thoughtfully for a second before snapping her fingers. "You wait here for a minute; I've got just the thing!" She was gone before he could even start asking what she meant.

He turned to Cathy who had an amused look on her face. "002 really is a hit with children, isn't he?"

Jet opened his mouth but shut it when he couldn't think of a good come back for that. Looking at her expression, he guessed that it was worth getting a little egg on his face to see her smile. It wasn't like he wasn't used to getting picked on; he got quite a lot of that aboard the Dolphin . . .

He pushed his thoughts away from Dolphin and its crew. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about his former comrades in arms; thinking of them brought up a whole mess of emotions that he didn't have the time (or the desire) to sift through at the moment. 

"Here we are." The girl had returned and she was pushing a cheap looking wheelchair. She stopped in front of them and smiled expectantly. "Well, what do you think?"

Cathy spoke first, sounding hesitant. "It's not a bad idea, but are they really just going to let us walk out of here with one of those?"

"Noooo. They're just gonna let you roll out." When the girl realized her joke had fallen flat, she spoke seriously. "They'll just think it's yours - the kids around here do it all the time - steal wheelchairs, I mean."

"I don't know . . . " Cathy still sounded a bit hesitant, but she seemed to be warming up to the idea.

The girl shrugged. "If you start feeling guilty about it, you could always return it; say you found it in the parking lot or something - it's more than what the kids do when they steal them. And this is for a good cause." She gestured to the wheelchair. "So, what'll it be?"  


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To be continued . . .  



	4. Getting There is Half the Fun

(*Author's note: Well, here is chapter 4.

Some orders of business to be taken care of. Firstly, I'd like to thank my beta reader GoldAngel2 for looking over this chapter. Secondly, I'd like to thank the people who reviewed my last chapter: Kris, GoldAngel2 and Wolfwood11. Thirdly, I'd like to thank the Academy for this prestigious awa -

Ooops, forgot what I was doing there for a second :) Anyway, there's nothing in this chapter that really needs any discussion, so there's really no reason for me to blather on. 

So, sit back; relax and enjoy the chapter. *)

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Since it seemed like they didn't really have any other options, Cathy and Jet agreed that the girl's idea was a good one - provided they could get out of there. As it turned out, it had been just as easy to sneak out of the hospital with the wheelchair as the girl said it would be. Unfortunately, it got a little tougher once they got through the door. 

The chair was very cheap and it soon became apparent that it had not been designed to be steered by the person sitting in it and it hadn't been intended for outside use. The wheels caught on every piece of uneven cement and Jet couldn't really control where the chair went when it did move. Of course, Jet had been determined to be stubborn about it and it took until he nearly tipped the chair over after trying to get over a rock for him to agree to let Cathy push. 

Then there was the argument about where Jet was going to spend the night. Jet, predictably, wanted to be stupid about it. "I can take care of myself!"

He sounded so much like Jimmy when he was having a tantrum that Cathy almost laughed. She managed to rein the impulse but it had been a close thing. "Jet, I am not letting you stay by yourself in your condition," she said evenly in a tone she thought broached no argument. 

But then, it was Jet she was arguing with. "I can take care of myself," he repeated and, although he said it with less conviction, his expression told her that he wasn't willing to admit being wrong about this.

Cathy fought the temptation to roll her eyes. Even with the new layers she'd seen to Jet, he was still easily the most frustrating person she'd ever met. He was obviously one of those men who wouldn't know what was good for him is it came up and shook his hand. Well, she had no intention of letting him get away with this kind foolishness!

Still, it had been a rough night for both of them (to say the least) and she figured that it'd be better to settle this with out having a shouting match - and since she was the adult here, the responsibility fell on her to find a way of doing that.

Summoning up her most commanding voice, she tried again. "Look Jet, you are coming home with me and that's that." Judging by the look on his face, this did not impress him. A different tactic was needed and she knew just the one to use. "It'll make me sleep better to know that you're not all alone and that help's there if you need it, all right?"

As soon as she saw his expression soften, she knew she'd gotten him. While a part of her felt guilty at manipulating him that way, she was mostly pleased that she'd found an easy solution to the problem.

"Okay, I'll stay with you," he said at last. Probably thinking that he'd given in too easily, he added, "but only for tonight!" 

Cathy smiled. 'What do you know, Jet Link can be reasoned with!' She almost wanted to pet him on the head. She settled for a quick pat on the shoulder as she started pushing the chair down the sidewalk.

While the hospital wasn't too far from their apartment building*, it was still far enough away that the trip wasn't as short as either of them would have liked it to be. For Jet's part, he felt like an invalid, a bother, useless. It didn't help that Cathy (who'd just been in a hospital for smoke inhalation) was not only pushing him all the way back to her apartment but insisting on making him stay there. 

He'd never been comfortable being on the receiving end of charity and it was bad enough that he needed any in the first place. It didn't help to know that the only reason Cathy was offering him any was because he'd saved her life. He wasn't sure whether is was guilt or gratitude making her do this, but he was certain that they were her only motivations.

He didn't know why this thought should bother him so much, but it did. Jet tried not to think about it too much, but there wasn't too much else to do. Cathy obviously wasn't in the mood for chit-chat and he didn't know what he'd say to her if she was.

For Cathy's part, she didn't mind pushing Jet. Trying to maneuver him around the rocks and cracks in the pavement distracted her from thinking about the fact that they were easy prey for any number of people who would find a lone woman and a cripple to be an irresistible target. She felt jumpy and, while she would have liked to think that she was just being paranoid, she knew that she had ample reason to be jumpy. It was a fact that women were not safe on the streets at night. Especially in this neighborhood.

Despite her worries, they hadn't met anyone on the streets. Still silent sidewalks were eerie and she was very glad when their apartment building came into sight. As soon as she saw it, she realized that they had another problem; the building was old and it had been built before people thought putting things like ramps in a building were very important.

This meant that she'd have to drag Jet up the stairs.

She smiled a little to herself. At least the only stairs they had to climb were the stoop steps. It was one of the few times in her life that she was happy about having a ground floor apartment. Jet seemed to have recovered a little by then because the walk up the stairs wasn't quite as difficult as she thought it would be - she still had to support most of his weight and he was tired out again by the time they got into her apartment, but Jet had been able to stay upright by himself and he had been able to help with the actual walking.

Leading him to her couch, she sat him down. She had to find something to prop his leg up with; she'd seen enough movies to know that was one of the things you were supposed to do to stop bleeding. From the looks of her apron, Jet had been bleeding quite a bit. After a moment hesitation, she put his injured leg on her coffee table (it was one of the only good pieces of furniture she owned). He hissed when his leg was moved but said nothing. 

"Are you okay, Jet?"

He looked at her and smirked. "I'm not dying." 

Cathy smiled at him, shaking her head. "I'll be right back." She decided, as she went to get some water and a wash cloth, that she really had two choices as far as Jet's attitude was concerned: she could either be annoyed or be amused. Considering what sort of night they both had been having (and the fact that Jet had saved her life), she decided to cut him a little slack and go with amused. Besides, she owed him some slack for all the times when she hadn't bothered to be understanding . . .

She shook her head. Now wasn't the time; she had work to do right now. She returned to the living room with a towel, a pot of water and a cloth. Kneeling on the floor so she'd have better access to his wound, she started to untie the apron.

"What are you doing!" He sounded angry. She looked up at his face, feeling confused by the rage she saw there. When she found her voice, she couldn't stop herself from sounding defensive. "I'm trying to clean your wound out."

"Well don't!" 

She was frankly shocked at his vehemence. After all they'd been though, why was he doing this? "What's wrong with you? I'm just trying to help!" She felt a bit hurt and she didn't bother hiding it from her voice.

For a second, Jet looked like he was going to apologize before looking angry again. "The only thing that's wrong with me is you! Who asked you to help me, anyway!" He bent down and retied the apron strings, almost snapping them with the force he used. 

As she watched him do that, she realized what was wrong with him. Well, the only thing she could think of that would make him act that way - although, it wasn't like she knew Jet all that well; it really could have been any number of things. But she was almost sure . . .

"I've already seen it, Jet." She spoke softly, trying not to make him any more angry, any more defensive. "I know what you are."

As soon as she saw the look on his face, she knew that she had nailed it. She reached for his hand and he let her take it. "You're the guy who saved my life."

Jet smiled, it was shaky and embarrassed, but genuine. He gave her hand a squeeze and while he didn't say it, she saw the apology in his face. She let go of his hand and turned her attention back to the apron strings.

After removing the apron, she winced. The wound looked terrible and she was almost afraid to touch it. One reason was that she knew it was going to really hurt Jet no matter how careful she was. The other reason was that she wasn't really sure if pouring water over those wires was such a good idea after all.

"Is it all right to . . ." She trailed off, not really sure how to word the question.

He seemed to understand it anyway. "As long it isn't dripping, it should be okay." When she hesitated, he added. "You won't get shocked."

That wasn't what she'd been worried about. Dipping the wash cloth into the water and making sure to wring out as much water as she could, she stared to clean. As she worked on getting as much dirt as she could out of wound, she was impressed that Jet was staying so quiet. She knew, if she was in his position, she'd be swearing up a storm. She wondered if he could deal with the pain so well because he was a cyborg or because he was just the strong and silent type.

Maybe it was a little bit of both. Cathy tried to keep the uneasiness she was feeling as she worked off of her face. There was the part of her, a very small part of her, that was just afraid. She wasn't proud of it but she couldn't deny that it was there, prodding her with visions of killer robots like in those movies that Jimmy always begged her to let him see . . .

Forcing it out of her mind, she thought about the hospital, when Jet had held her in his arms - she hadn't been afraid then, had she? She had felt safe. She had felt -

- well, she wasn't really sure what else she'd felt and decided that, considering what she was doing, it was too distracting to think about now. There would be plenty of time to figure everything out later . . . if there was actually anything that needed to be figured out. 

She worked on the wound for almost a half an hour before she stopped cleaning and wrapped the towel over it (the wound was still bleeding a little and she wanted to keep it from getting more dirt in it). While she didn't think it looked much better, she decided that Jet had probably had enough stress on his leg for one night. Besides, if she stayed that way too much longer, she would have found it a bit harder to stand up again. She wasn't very old but she was hardly a teenager anymore.

"All done."

"Good." He sounded like he meant it. 

Cathy looked up at his face. It seemed like she hadn't stopped a moment too soon; he looked much paler than he had before she'd started and he was trembling. She quelled her annoyance at him for not telling her that it was affecting him this much, deciding that the last thing Jet needed was to be yelled at. She also knew that he probably wouldn't appreciate being asked it he was all right. It was obvious he wasn't.

She stood and stretched before picking up the pot and heading back to the kitchen. After dumping the pink tinted water down the sink and washing her hands, she returned to find Jet looking around her apartment. Cathy felt irrationally glad that she'd been able to clean it before she went to work - not that she thought he particularly cared about the cleanliness of her apartment; it was just that she didn't like to have a messy house when she had company.

But it seemed like Jet was looking for something. "Is there anything you need?"

He looked startled, obviously not noticing that she had come back. "I need a phone."

"A phone? Who are you going to call this time of night?" She looked at her watch. It wasn't really night anymore; it was almost one o'clock in the morning. Still, she couldn't imagine who he could be thinking of calling so early in the morning.

Jet ran a hand through his hair. "I have to call Doctor Gilmore."

"Doctor Gilmore?" Something about the name seemed familiar but she couldn't think of where she knew it from. "Who's that?" It occurred to her, as the question left her mouth, that it wasn't really any of her business. 

"He's a friend." He faltered a little on the last word, as if that wasn't really the word he wanted. He thought about it a moment longer before shrugging. "It's a little complicated."

She got the feeling that everything was complicated when it came to Jet. And, while she couldn't deny she was a bit curious about this Doctor Gilmore of his, she decided not to press. After what he'd done for her tonight, the least she owed him was a little privacy.

"That's okay," Cathy said as she went to the last place she'd seen her phone. She didn't really have many friends and she couldn't remember the last time she'd used it. After a bit of digging, she found it and, after plugging it back in, she carefully brought the phone to the coffee table. She was relieved to find that the phone cord was long enough to reach.

Handing him the receiver, she gave him a smile. "I'll be out in the kitchen if you need me."

He nodded. "Thanks."

"Your welcome," she said as she walked to the kitchen. Closing the door behind her, she allowed herself a sigh as she looked around the room. There were a few dishes in the sink and, while the floor didn't look dirty, she figured it would survive being swept. At least it would give her something to do.

It wasn't too long before these chores were finished. Making sure that there was nothing else to be done, she sat at the kitchen table and flipped through yesterday's newspaper, trying her best not to listen too closely to the muffled voice coming from the other room.

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To be continued . . .

* In 'Of Moths and Flames,' I'd said that Cathy and Jet lived at different apartment buildings; however, re-watching the episode I realized that they probably lived at the same one - that scene where Jet meets Cathy one her way to work, it looked like Jet was trying to go in as Cathy was coming out. Besides, Jimmy's night time visit makes more sense if he didn't have to go to far from home. 


	5. Memories and a Long Distance Phone Call

(*Author's note: I'm really starting to get tired of writing these. Tired. Tired. Tired. 

All right, now that I'm done whining, I do have some business to attend to: 1) Thanks GoldAngel2 for beta reading this chapter for me; 2) Thanks GoldAngel2, Axa, Wolfwood11 and dark angel matoko for reviewing since the last time I've updated (because it's good to know that other people are enjoying my hard work).; and 3) To answer dark angel matoko's question: that's what I'm going for (although that really depends on whether Cathy and Jet want to cooperate with me :) ) 

I think that's everything. So, on to chapter 5! *)

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Jet stared down at the phone receiver in his hand as he tried to remember Doctor Gilmore's number. He'd made a point of writing it down before he'd left but since he didn't have that paper on him and since he had no idea where said paper was, it wasn't doing him much good now.

He knew he should have memorized it - he hadn't because he figured that he didn't have so much stuff that he'd lose track of some paper. If he remembered correctly, his thinking on the subject had been: 'What's the point of memorizing it now? By the time I need to use it, I'll have forgotten it anyway.'

He had already tried using his internal receiver but everyone had been out of range. Not really a surprise considering that New York, in addition to being his old hometown, had the extra bonus of being very far away from Japan. At least, he'd counted it as a bonus when he'd decided to come back here. 

At the moment though, it was turning out to be a problem instead. He was on his own unless he could contact Doctor Gilmore and he wouldn't be able to do that until he remembered what the phone number was. It wasn't like he could call information if he couldn't remember either. He seriously doubted that an operator would be able to help him with this.

Jet could just picture how that conversation would go: Hi, I need the number for a Doctor Kazumi living in Japan. Japan. What do you mean you can't help me? Well, why the heck don't you have Japanese phone numbers!?

No, he didn't suppose that would be helpful.

Unfortunately, about the only thing he could remember about the phone number was that it was long and complicated. Frankly, he was feeling less confident about actually remembering it as the minutes passed. The dial tone had already been replaced with a recording of a woman telling him that if he'd like to make a call, he should hang up and try again. He hung up the receiver and his mind began to wander.

Maybe going so far away had been a mistake. He could berate himself and ask what he 'd been thinking, but he had several answers to that question already. The simplest answer was that, being a natural loner, he had needed some time away from everyone and since Black Ghost was gone, his friends would not need him for a while. 

The actual answer was a bit more complicated than that - he had only the fuzziest understanding of it himself. Thinking deeply about other people's motives was something he did often; his own motives were something that he tended not to think too much about. The fact that he was giving them serous thought now . . . Well, he could only attribute that to wanting to take his mind off the fact that he'd be completely screwed if he couldn't remember that phone number.

The need to get away had started, like many of the things in his life had started, with Black Ghost. After Black Ghost's defeat* and after the festivities were over, Jet had found it hard to adjust to the peace afer spending so much time fighting. It was like he didn't know what to do with himself now that his life was his own. After a bit of soul searching (a phrase that Jet normally scoffed at but found apt to describe his thoughts at the time), he'd figured out what was wrong.

To put it simply: he hadn't felt like himself anymore. He could remember the way he used to be and it had seemed very different than the way he was now. It wasn't unexpected (considering what he'd been through), but it had been unsettling none the less. In all the ways that mattered, it had seemed like the old Jet Link was gone.

And he hadn't been sure whether or not he should be happy about that. It wasn't as if he'd been one of the good guys in those days - certainly he hadn't done much worth being proud of now that he was looking back on it. The fact that he'd ever been so proud of his old 'accomplishments' (which had included things like stealing fruit and writing obscene things on walls) left him with an acute feeling of embarrassment. 

Of course, not everything he'd done back then embarrassed him. He'd been a good fighter and luckier than some in that respect - he'd had the skill and the speed to take care of himself. And when his fist couldn't help him, he'd had a quick wit to fall back on; he could remember quite a few scrapes he'd gotten out of because he could come up with a quick lie.

It hadn't been an easy life or even a good one for that matter. Though he hadn't been in a position to appreciate it then, that life had begun to wear him down. It'd been hard, living day by day, always watching his back because everyone around him was just waiting for an opportunity to betray him. Even the members of his own gang, people he'd considered friends before he'd understood what that word was supposed to mean, had to be kept at arms length.

He sometimes found himself wondering, not often because having such 'what if'y thoughts annoyed him, what his life would have been like if those Black Ghost operatives hadn't picked him up that night. He couldn't go so far as to say that he was grateful to Black Ghost, but he could see the irony in the fact that he'd probably be dead by now if it wasn't for them. Or, if not dead, then a hard, bitter man who trusted no one and probably not even himself . . .

Jet smiled sadly. Maybe it was for the best that the old Jet Link was gone.

Happy or not, he'd had the serious problem of not knowing who he was. Was he just 002, a cyborg soldier who fought impossible odds to free the world from evil, or was he more than that? He'd quickly realized that there were no answers to that question where he was and that the only way to find those answers was to be on his own for a while and see just who Jet Link was now.

See if he even existed anymore.

So, after about a week of tip toeing around Doctor Kazumi's house, he'd packed his things and booked a flight to his old home to find out. He'd left them a quick note so they'd know that he hadn't been kidnaped or anything (they were his friends and he hadn't wanted to make them worry) but he hadn't told them where he was going. He hadn't wanted to be found for awhile - assuming that they'd look.

It hadn't been his proudest moment, running out like that. He couldn't even comfort himself by remembering that he hadn't been the only one who'd planned on leaving. While 004 and 008 had talked about going back to their home countries, he doubted that either one of them would have left without saying good -

That was it! The phone number had come back to him and he quickly punched it in before he had a chance to forget it again. As the phone began to ring, he could only shake his head. His mind sure worked strangely sometimes, no doubt about it.

"Kazumi residence." The voice sounded a bit tinny and there was a slight echo from the transcontinental line, but he'd know that voice anywhere. And, considering what he knew, he was more than a little surprised to hear it. 

"00 - Albert? Is that you?"

There was a short pause before Albert answered. "Yes it is. And if this is Jet, I'd say that you have less reason to sound shocked than I do."

His tone was light but his words made Jet feel a little guilty anyway. "I guess you're right about that."

"I usually am." 

His voice didn't hold even a hint of self-consciousness and Jet couldn't stop the smile from coming to his face. Some things never changed - Albert wouldn't be Albert is he didn't sound at least a little smug.

"What are you doing there? I thought you were going back to Germany?" He knew that he should probably just ask Albert to hand the phone to Doctor Gilmore so he could get this leg business sorted out, but he couldn't help himself. He'd missed Albert (indeed, he'd missed everyone from the Dolphin) and it was nice to hear the voice of a friend.

"I did. It just didn't work out the way I'd planned."

When it didn't seem like he was going to offer anything else, Jet figured that it was time to get to the point. "Is Doctor Gilmore there?"

"You just missed him. Doctor Kazumi took him to Tokyo and they're not supposed to be back for hours."

Well, so much for talking to Doctor Gilmore. Now what? He guessed he could call later - but that was stupid! All he had to do was tell Albert instead - he'd trusted the man enough to watch his back in a fight; he certainly trusted the man enough to pass on a message. 

He must have taken too long to answer for Albert spoke first. "Not that I'm not happy to hear from you - and I'm sure Doctor Gilmore will be thrilled that you finally called - I'm getting the idea that this isn't a social call." 

Jet could feel a little guilt creeping up on him."You're right; it isn't." He only wished it was. He knew that he really should have called sooner and he hated the fact that the only reason he'd picked up the phone had been that he'd needed something.

"So, what's the problem?"

He took a second to pick his words before deciding that there was no reason for him not to level with Albert. "I need help. I damaged my leg."

"How bad is it?" Albert sounded a little concerned and Jet didn't blame him; it wasn't often that he asked for help - even if he was injured he usually didn't ask for help. Doctor Gilmore usually forced it on him.

"Pretty bad," he paused and tried to remember what it had looked like. "The skin over the right knee is gone and I'm leaking something pink."

"Pink?"

"Yeah, I can't remember what it's for though."

Jet could almost hear Albert's shrug. "You've got me." Then his tone became a bit softer, "Are you going to be all right until we come for you?"

'Not like it would make any difference if I wouldn't be,' he thought darkly. He didn't say it out loud because there wasn't any point in blaming his friend when this mess had been his own fault. After all, if he'd been a little more careful at the hotel - actually paying attention to what was going on - this wouldn't have happened in the first place.

"Yeah, I think I'll be okay. Just don't wait too long."

"Well, that depends on how long it takes to get where you are. Where are you?"

After making sure that Albert had a pen, Jet told him the address to Cathy's apartment. While he would prefer to be back in his own apartment by at least this afternoon, he wasn't sure how stubborn Cathy would want to be about it. She could be pretty darn stubborn when she wanted to. Of course, he could be pretty stubborn too.

Once Albert had finished writing, he asked, "So, how did you do this to yourself?" Considering the situation and the person involved, there was only the slightest suggestion that there was anything teasing about the question.

Jet thought about drawing the story out before deciding that there were a few things that he didn't really want to talk about yet. Like Cathy or Jimmy. He couldn't have said why, but he wanted to keep them to himself. At least, for the moment.

"I was saving this woman from a fire when I got caught in an explosion."

It took Albert a second to answer. No doubt he was shocked that Jet had turned down an opportunity to brag about it. Jet usually saw no point in being modest - modesty was just something you used to fish for praise. And Jet had never needed praise to know that he'd done a good deed. "Is she all right?"

"Yeah, she's fine. Not a scratch on her."

Albert must have heard the relief (rather than pride) in Jet's voice. "Is she a friend of yours?" 

Jet didn't really want to talk about her but he knew that Albert had this way of telling when people were lying to him. So, he settled for a truthful answer. "Not exactly."

"Ah," he replied knowingly. Jet wondered, a bit flippantly, just what it was that Albert thought he knew. 

He didn't ask because tonight was starting to catch up with him and he just wanted to get this phone call over with so he could go to sleep. "So, when can you guys come for me?"

If Albert was surprised by the sudden change of subject, he showed no sign of it. "I don't really know. I don't think that it'd be more than a couple of days." After a short pause, he added, "If you want, I can have Doctor Gilmore call you when he gets back." 

"That'd be great." It was bad enough that he was making one long distance phone call on Cathy's phone and he was sure that Doctor Kazumi could afford the costs of a second one better than Cathy could. On the phone base was a card that had Cathy's street address and a phone number. He assumed it was hers, although he wasn't sure why someone would put their own phone number on their telephone.

Jet decided not to question his luck and just accept it. 

He gave Albert the number and asked what time it was over there. It had occurred to him that there must be quite a time difference between New York and Japan and he wanted at least a few hours of sleep before he had to talk on the phone again. 

"It's about 3:50 in the afternoon here." As if understanding why Jet had asked, he went on, "I'll make sure it's a decent time where you are when he calls."

"Thanks." He stifled a yawn -

- but hadn't stifled it well enough. "Why don't we call it a night? I'm sure that we'll have a chance to catch up later."

"Yeah. Goodbye, Albert."

"Goodbye, Jet. And good luck with that woman of yours."

Albert had hung up before Jet could protest she wasn't 'his'. What was it with people thinking there was something between him and Cathy anyway? First that girl at the hospital and now 004 - who next? He couldn't remember saying anything to give them that impression. 

Well, it probably wasn't his fault anyway. That girl just jumped to conclusions and as for Albert . . . he probably thought that it was his duty as the older man to tease him about women. That was all there was to it, he was sure. He considered it a while longer before deciding that it didn't really matter what they thought; what was important was what he thought about it. And, honestly, he felt too worn out to even start trying to figure that mess out.

He decided not to even try. Hanging up the phone, he closed his eyes and stopped thinking about it.

There were certainly other things to think about. A couple days before they could get him? That was less time than he'd expected but more than he would have liked. As far as he was concerned, the sooner he was back on his feet, the better. He hated being like this: helpless. He hated it more than he hated most anything else. Hated . . . it . . .

Jet opened his eyes quickly before he could dose off. He looked at the closed kitchen door and wondered what Cathy was doing in there. She must be bored out of her mind! While he felt a bit bad about chasing her out of her own living room, he figured that it was probably for the best that she hadn't been in here for the phone call; he doubted that she would have appreciated being referred to as "this woman."

"Cathy!" When his call received no answer, he tried again. "Cathy!" She had said to give her a yell, right?

He waited for a few seconds, listening before calling louder. "Cathy!" 

Still nothing. "Cathy!" He was starting to feel concerned and, as he called her name again, he hoped that she was all right.

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To be continued . . .  
  
* Which happened in "The Last Battle." 


	6. Work Worries and Bedtime

(*Author's note: Here is chapter six. I'd like to thank GoldAngel2 for beta reading this (although, I have added almost 300 words since the last time she's seen it :) and I hope that she likes the revised as much as the original). I'd also like to thank the people who have reviewed since my last posting. Thank you Wolfwood11 and GoldAngel2 (who have both reviewed every chappie I've posted so far!) and thank you Kris Ice (who reviewed twice!). Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I didn't explicitly say so before but if anyone has any questions, suggestions or criticisms to offer on this or any other chapter, feel free to do so. You might make me aware of something that I missed or help me to fine tune my skills or even spark new ideas . . .

With that being said, I see no reason not to be on with the chapter *)

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Cathy squinted down at the newspaper, trying to get the squiggles on the page to look like words again. After a few frustrating minutes, she decided that it wasn't worth the effort (or the headache) to read yesterday's news - no, the day before yesterday's news now. Leaning back in the chair, she rubbed her aching eyes and had a fleeting worry about maybe needing glasses before her sense took over. She was just tired and, looking at her watch, she saw that she had every reason to be.

It was almost two o'clock in the morning now. If tonight had been a normal night, she would have been in bed hours ago. Well, it's a good thing I don't have to work today, she thought, as she sat up. On a work day (which included every day but Saturday - she wanted the opportunity to spend some time with Jimmy that wasn't interrupted by rude people asking for refills), she had to be at the Sweet Pot by six a.m.; she couldn't imagine being able to function if she had to do that today.

Not that she would have let that stop her if it had been a work day. She needed the money too badly to let something like lack of sleep stop her. While theirs was not a hand-to-mouth existence any longer (due, in great part to her husband's . . . absence), her and Jimmy's situation wasn't anything that could be called comfortable. No, they weren't starving and they had a roof over their heads, but Cathy was afraid that, between the bills the hospital would send her and the fire at the hotel, there would not be enough money at the end of the month to break even.

She shook her head sharply, feeling irritated with herself. It didn't do any good worrying about it now, did it? And it wasn't as if it would be the first time that she'd found herself close to the end of the month without a dime to her name; she'd managed to scrape by before and, if she had to, she would do so again.

Still, she thought with a slightly bitter smile, it would be nice if she could come out a head one of these days. Not like that was going to happen any time soon -

Cathy closed her eyes and tried to think about something else, not wanting to start swimming in the bitterness pool. It was hard to get out once you got in and she had no intention of diving into it head first, thank you very much. She opened her eyes and looked at the livingroom doorway.

He had to be done with that phone call by now. Even if he wasn't, she'd given him almost an hour; how patient was she supposed to be? Besides, she felt like she could dose off at any second and, if that was going to happen, she'd rather be in a bed. She'd been just about ready to stand up and see what was happening when she heard Jet's voice.

"Cathy!" He sounded equal parts concerned and frustrated, as if he'd been calling for a while and was starting to worry. She couldn't remember hearing him earlier but she supposed it was possible that she'd dosed off or had been thinking too deeply to notice.

"I'm coming!" She stood slowly, stretching her stiff back, before making her way back into the livingroom. Jet was sitting on the couch with his arms crossed and his good leg bouncing quickly. He looked as if he would have been pacing if he'd been able to but had had to settle for fidgeting instead. Clearly, patience wasn't one of his virtues. 

He looked up and Cathy didn't miss the look of relief that flashed across his face before it was replaced with annoyance. "There you are! Jeeze, didn't you hear me calling? I was about ready to come after you." The heat in his voice was negated by the almost smile he gave her towards the end. 

"I bet," she said with a slight smile of her own. "Were you able to get a hold of Doctor Gilmore?" 

He shook his head as he uncrossed his arms. "No, I missed him. But I left a message with Albert and he'll make sure he calls me." Then he actually looked a bit sheepish. "I hope you don't mind I gave him your phone number."

She decided that 'sheepish' was an expression that didn't set well on his face. "That's okay." Although, she wondered briefly how he'd known it before remembering that she'd put it on the phone - when she'd first moved in here, she was always forgetting the number. "Who's Albert?"

"He's just a friend."

Cathy almost asked if this Albert was like Jet - a cyborg - but decided that it wasn't really important for her to know. However, there was something that she did need to ask. "But Doctor Gilmore, he can help you, right? He can fix your leg?"

"As good as new."

That was a relief. "Good." She didn't know what she would have done if Jet had permanently crippled himself for her sake. The thought of it had been eating at her all night and she thought she could breathe a little easier now that she knew he was going to be okay.

She'd been just about to ask where Doctor Gilmore lived (so she'd have a better idea of when he would come for Jet) when she noticed how he was slouching on the couch. His skin seemed pale beneath the dirt and his eyes weren't really focusing on anything. He seemed nearly done in. "You look awful," she declared, thinking out loud.

Jet cocked his head and gave her a wry smile. "You really know how to flatter a guy."

"Why thank you, Jet," she said sweetly, pretending not to hear the sarcasm. "I try."

He stared at her for a second, as if he wasn't sure if she was being serious or not, before shaking his head. "Right." It seemed like he was going to say more but had to yawn instead. No, he wouldn't last too much longer would he?

Fighting back her own yawn, she asked if he'd be all right sleeping on the couch. It really was the only place for him: Jet was too tall for Jimmy's bed and she doubted that he would enjoy sleeping on the floor.

Jet inspected the couch with slightly droopy eyes. "It'll do."

"I'll be right back," she said before going to her son's bedroom to steal his comforter and pillow. She'd have to do something else when Jimmy came back, but they'd do now. At least it seemed like Jimmy had actually decided to listen to her about eating in bed - everything looked clean. 

When she came back, Jet frowned at the bundle in her arms but said nothing. Cathy guessed that it was against the code of manliness to use blankets that had cartoon characters on them. Well, like it or not, he was just going to have to suffer with Ninja Turtles* for now.

She handed him the pillow and set the blanket on the table. "All right, now lie back and I'll get you settled."

He did so and as Cathy put the throw pillows under his knee she couldn't help but notice his discomfort. He kept opening and closing his mouth like he wanted to say something but kept changing his mind instead. Judging by the look on his face, he probably wanted to say something along the lines of "You don't have to do this" or "I don't need you to mother me."

Once she'd finished tucking him in (a notion she was sure tickled her more than it would Jet), she took a moment to admire her handiwork. His leg was elevated and it looked as though she'd made the couch as comfortable as it was going to get. She decided that it would do.

She'd been just about to go brush her teeth when Jet, who had been frowning deeply at his blanket those times when he hadn't been opening his mouth, asked a question.

"What are these things?" He spoke with the tone of a man who wasn't quite sure what he was looking but who, at the same time, was almost certain that he didn't like whatever it was.

It took her a second to realize what he was talking about. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." When he didn't look enlightened, she added, "They're cartoon characters."

"They're hideous," he said flatly.

Cathy shook her head, finding it hard to believe that they were actually having this conversation. Truthfully, she'd never really given anything about them too much thought - she'd never liked the show because she'd felt that it was full of the same sort of nonsense that Jet had been filling Jimmy's head with . . .

Although, considering everything that had happened, how much of it (at least in Jet's case) was nonsense? After all, that 'nonsense' had saved her life - she could hardly keep calling it that. Maybe she'd only thought it was nonsense because it always seemed that the only heroes that fought for a better world were in comic books and cartoon shows - you didn't come across too many real life heroes. At least, she hadn't met too many . . .

You've got a lot in common with those turtles, she thought, realizing, as she thought it, that it was true. He and the turtles basically fought for them same things. And both of them had a masked arch-enemy with a stupid name. But most importantly, they were both heroes - really, the only difference was that Jet was real. 

At least, she'd thought she thought it before Jet answered, looking both unbelieving and insulted. "You think I'm ugly?"

"No," she said, trying not to laugh at his expression, "I mean, they go around fighting evil and saving people too."

"Do they?" He gave the blanket another look before shrugging. "Well, they're still ugly."

She shook her head and smiled. "Do you need anything before I go to bed?"

"No," he said as he closed his eyes. "Goodnight, Cathy."

"Goodnight, Jet."

***  
  


After her evening libations, Cathy clicked off the living room light. The apartment wasn't completely dark; thanks to the old streetlight outside her window, everything in the room was enveloped in a sickly yellow glow. It was bright enough for her to navigate around the furniture and it was bright enough for her to tell that Jet was asleep as she paused next to the couch.

She looked down at him and sighed as she took in his features. Most people looked peaceful when they were sleeping - Jet looked almost as guarded as he did when he was awake. Maybe more so because he couldn't put on that mask of indifference he seemed so fond of. Considering what she guessed about his background (and whatever else he'd gone though since being a cyborg), she supposed it was only natural that he'd look that way. 

Of course, natural or not, it made her feel a little sad anyway. Without even thinking about what she was doing, Cathy reached a hand out and smoothed Jet's hair away from his face. He tensed at her touch, but relaxed again as her hand came to rest on his forehead. It amazed her how young he looked. 

She thought about all those stories Jimmy had told her about Jet, wondering how much of all that had been true. Not that she had much reason to doubt it - considering what she'd seen him do, but she still found it a bit hard to mesh the image of the sleeping young man before her with that of this 002 Jimmy had liked to gush about. 

Not that any of that really mattered. The truth was that Jet didn't need all of his past exploits as 002 to be a hero in her eyes; he'd become a hero the moment he'd stepped into that hotel. He'd risked his life for her and she would never forget that. Even if she found that she didn't like Jet as a person, he'd always have her gratitude. Cathy was smart enough to know that if it hadn't been for Jet, she would have been dead and Jimmy would have been an orphan -

- and she still hadn't thanked him for that! She'd been meaning to, but the time had just never seemed right and she couldn't think of how she'd say it anyway. 'Oh, and by the by, thanks for saving my life back there,' didn't even come close to sounding right. It sounded so hollow and she would never want to be so flippant about something this important . . .

She thought about it a moment longer before deciding that all of this could wait until later - after she'd had at least a couple hours of sleep. It wasn't as if there was some sort of deadline she had to stick to. Had all the time in the world, really. Besides, she thought with a mental chuckle, I doubt that he'd appreciate a 'thank you' at the moment.

"Goodnight, Jet," Cathy whispered as she drew her hand away. She stood there a moment longer and found herself smiling as she realized that the warmth she had felt for Jet back on the roof top** hadn't disappeared. If anything, it had grown. 

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To Be Continued . . .  
  


* I have serious doubts that anyone reading this hasn't heard of these! Cartoon about mutated turtles that learned the art of Ninja and tried to stop their arch-foes from ruining the world. 

** This harkens back to 'Of Moths and Flames' (I'm citing stuff *I've* written; I feel so important :) )


	7. Early Morning Considerations

(*Author's note: Chapter 7 took me a loong while to write and when I finally finished, I wrote a song about it. However, since most of the song is composed of "Go me! I wrote chapter 7! Oh yeah!" and since it's not the same if you can't hear it, I'm not going to talk about it anymore.

Enough hilarity! Let's get down to business. 1) GoldAngel2 really helped me out with this one (as well as beta reading it!) and she deserves a great big 'thank you.' So thank you. And 2) GoldAngel2, Wolfwood11 and StunGun Millie took the time to leave a review and they have some 'thank you's' coming to them too. So, Thank you, thank you and thank you.

I don't think anything in this chapter needs an explanation. There's really no point in stalling any longer. So, here is chapter 7. Enjoy! *)

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The first thing that Jet noticed as he crawled towards wakefulness was a strange ringing sound. At first, he couldn't think of what it could be. Then, as he woke up a little more, he realized that it was a telephone and that, since it was ringing, he should probably answer it.

He opened his eyes and was immediately blinded by the light streaming in through the window. Late morning then, maybe early afternoon. Either way, while it was late enough to be awake, he felt like he could use a few more winks - just to be on the safe side.

Before he could roll over and try for those winks, the phone rang again and reminded him of why he'd opened his eyes in the first place. Still trying for 'awake' instead of just 'conscious,' he turned his head towards the source of the sound and frowned. He hadn't made that many phone calls since coming back to New York, but he did know what his phone looked like and this wasn't it. At the same time, he realized that he was lying on a couch instead of in his bed. 

It was very confusing and it took him another ring to remember that he wasn't in his apartment at all. It was Cathy's apartment; Cathy's couch; and Cathy's phone. Which was still ringing. 

He reached for the phone, now remembering why he was at her apartment and who was probably calling. Misjudging how far he actually was from the phone, he almost knocked it on the floor before getting a good grip on the receiver. He put it to his ear and tried to chase the remaining fog from his brain. 

"Hello?" 

"002?" Doctor Gilmore sounded a bit hesitant, as if he wasn't sure he'd actually gotten a hold of the right person. 

Jet felt himself smile. "The one and only."

"I called as soon as I heard. Are you all right?"

It was only the concern in his voice that stopped Jet from saying something sarcastic. "I'm okay for now, but my leg's not in good shape."

"004 said as much. What's wrong with it?"

Jet took a moment to think of the right words. He didn't want to make the doctor worry too much but he also wanted him to be able to tell if it was serious or not. "It's my right leg; I didn't get a real good look at it, but I'm missing most of the skin on my knee and there's some kind of pink fluid leaking from it."

When the doctor didn't immediately reply, he asked, "Do you think it's serious?" Jet couldn't keep the fear out of his voice and he hated himself for it. After all, what was there to be afraid of? Doctor Gilmore had a knack for fixing them up and he knew he had healed worse wounds than his - he was going to be fine. He knew that: he just found it hard to believe at the moment. 

"What? Oh, I think you'll be fine. I'll have to take a look to be certain, but I'm sure you'll be all right." The fact that the doctor sounded very confident about this made Jet feel a lot better. "Are you by yourself? We'll try to come as soon as we can, but it's going to be a couple of days at least."

"No. 004 told you what happened, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, that woman offered to put me up for a while." It had been less of an 'offer' and more of an 'order,' but he figured that the end result was the same. For whatever reason she was doing it, he was sure that she'd be willing to put up with him for a few days.

"Good. How are you feeling - are you dizzy or anything like that?"

"No, except for my leg, I feel all right." Actually, he felt a bit tired, but, considering what had happened last night and how much sleep he'd gotten, he would have thought it strange if he didn't.

He could almost hear the doctor's thoughtful nod. "All right." There was a sort pause before he continued, sounding a bit more business like. "We were actually going to try looking for you before you called."

"Really?" Jet asked warily. Taking the doctor's tone into account, it was obvious that they hadn't wanted to find him so they could invite him to a reunion. Something must have happened. "Is Black Ghost back or something?" He'd meant it in a flippant way but, once it came out, he immediately regretted it - it wasn't the sort of thought he wanted to contemplate.

"What! No," Doctor Gilmore assured him, "nothing like that."

"Then what?"

The doctor told him that an old colleague from the Black Ghost days had written him, asking for his help. Or rather, the help of 005, 009 and 002. Something about finding some kind of dinosaur*. The letter had been very specific about who was needed and they had wanted to find Jet to see if he'd be interested in helping.

Once Doctor Gilmore had finished, Jet took a second to think it over. The whole thing sounded suspicious and he didn't like the idea of helping out someone who'd worked for Black Ghost but - and there always was a but - he found it hard to deny Doctor Gilmore anything. It was obvious to Jet, from the way he'd been talking, that the doctor wanted to help this guy and, well, he knew better than anybody that everybody deserved a second chance.

"Okay, after I'm patched up, I'll help this guy - if Joe and Geranimo agree to help too."

"Excellent. I was hoping you'd agree."

"So, when do we leave for that?" 

The doctor paused, giving it some thought. "As soon as possible - probably as soon as you're well enough to do it."

Jet frowned. He'd been hoping for a little more time so he could put his affairs in order - such as they were. At the very least, he'd wanted time to break his leaving to Jimmy gently. The poor kid didn't need two guys running out on him . . . 

He must have taken too long with these thoughts as the doctor asked, "Is that all right?"

"Yeah, it's fine," Jet lied. After a short pause, he changed the subject. "You said 'we' are coming. Who else is coming with you?" 

"Everyone, although we have to stop at San Francisco to pick up 005." 

"Oh." Jet was surprised to say the least. He'd expected that it'd only be Doctor Gilmore and maybe Joe or Albert. All of them were coming? Just to pick him up? Why?

"We all missed you, you know." While the overall tone was gentle, there was a shade of hurt in it that Jet could not miss. 

"I know," he said. "I missed you guys too." Jet was a little surprised with himself - it wasn't like him to just come out with stuff like that. Maybe he hadn't gotten enough sleep or something. Either way, he'd meant what he said; he just felt embarrassed for saying it. 

Not giving the doctor a chance to reply, he tried to distance himself from the emotional topic. "Hey, Doctor, I was wondering: what's the pink fluid for?"

The change in subject seemed to throw the doctor because it took him a second to speak. "Honestly, 002," Doctor Gilmore's voice held a very familiar tone of exasperation, "I would have hoped that you'd pay closer attention - it is your body after all."

Jet had even missed being lectured . . . well, just a little. "Yeah, fine. So what's it for?"

The doctor sighed and told him that, when they came, he could just take a look at the schematics himself - maybe then he'd remember it.

Jet chuckled on the inside. No, nothing ever changed, did it? "Fine, don't tell me; I don't need to know anyway." He sounded annoyed, but, truthfully, the doctor's answer had set his mind at ease; if the pink fluid was for something important, Doctor Gilmore would have just told him. But, since he hadn't, Jet knew that he wouldn't have to worry about it.

"002, of course you -" The doctor sounded like he was going to try for a lecture but had thought better of it. "Never mind. Just try to take care of yourself. It shouldn't take us more than a couple days to get you."

"All right. I'll be waiting."

"Goodbye, 002."

"Yeah, goodbye, Doctor Gilmore." Jet hung up the phone and just lay there for a while, thinking. He couldn't remember the last time that he'd had so many mixed feelings. He was frankly overjoyed that he'd be able to see everyone from the Dolphin and that they were all coming to see him. But, at the same time, he knew that he'd be leaving a lot of unfinished business here when he left.

He knew that Jimmy probably wouldn't take it well and Jet wasn't sure what he could do to soften the blow for him. It didn't help that Jet had never been good at saying goodbye - especially to people that he cared for. 

Then there was this thing between him and Cathy. Or rather, this thing with him that had to do with Cathy. He'd spent a lot of time not thinking about it, thinking that he'd have time to later, but now it seemed that he didn't really have a lot of later to play around with. 

The main reason he'd been trying not to think about it was that the whole thing confused him. This sudden . . . warmth he felt for Cathy seemed wrong somehow. He kept asking himself how it could be possible to completely turn his feelings for her on their head in less than a day. To go from what he'd felt before to what he felt now . . .

It wasn't that he'd ever hated her, exactly - the fact that she obviously cared so much for her son put her up a few notches in his book - but it would be a lie to say that he'd ever really liked her. And she hadn't really given him much of a reason to. 

But now? Now he thought he cared for her. Not because she was Jimmy's mother, like he had when he went to rescue her, but because she was Cathy Jenkins. Because she was one heck of a woman who was probably as stubborn as he was. Because she hadn't let him get away with giving up. Because sh -

And, now that he thought about it, if Cathy hadn't insisted on not listening to him back at the hotel, they both probably would have died. He might have tried getting up after she left, but he probably wouldn't have made it without someone egging him on. It was humbling to realize that she had saved his life just as much as he'd saved hers.

So, maybe it wasn't so strange to think that he cared for her. 

Of course, Jet was sure that she didn't feel the same way. Oh, sure she'd been very kind to him and more patient than he would have given her credit for, but she was just showing her gratitude and that was it. He was sure that's all it was. He was sure that once she came to her senses, things would go back to the way they used to be.

Except that they wouldn't because, when Doctor Gilmore came, he'd be leaving. 

He sighed and stared up at the ceiling. He wondered again how he'd break the news to Jimmy; he hadn't needed Cathy to tell him how much Jimmy liked him. Truth was, he was fond of the kid too and he knew how hard he was going to take this. At least, he was sure, Cathy would be happy that he was finally going to leave her son alone.

Giving it some more thought, he decided that, after a day or two, Jimmy would be fine. He was sure that Jimmy would find someone else to latch on to in no time. The only thing the Jet was worried about was the fact that Jimmy was too trusting for his own good - it had only been a matter of luck that he hadn't met a real creep before running into Jet. 

Well, thought Jet with a smirk, there weren't too many creeps that'd be able to get passed Cathy . . .

The smirk was quickly replaced by a frown. He was really going to miss this place, and not just for the reasons that included Jimmy and Cathy. It had been nice to be just a normal person again. It had been nice to go to the same coffee shop or restaurant enough times to have a 'usual.' It had been especially nice to not have to worry about anything besides how he planned on burning his next meal**. 

Not to say that he wouldn't have welcomed a little excitement (boredom had been a constant companion those times when he wasn't with Jimmy) and he had reached the point where he'd need to get a job to keep his apartment, but . . . he had been hoping that it would last just a little while longer. 

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To be continued . . .

* This refers to the episode "Fossils of Evil" which according to my time line of events (as well as TV Tome's episode guide) comes right after "Hero"

** As we saw in "The Story of a Struggling Restaurant," cooking is not Jet's forte :)   
  



	8. Early Morning Considerations redux

(*Author's note: Here is Chapter 8. You know, when I started this, I'd actually thought that I'd be done by the time I'd gotten to chapter 8 - what a dummy I was! Anyway, this chapter is the longest chapter to date and, while I know that some authors do this, I'm not going to apologize for a chapter running long. As far as I'm concerned, the longer the chapter the better! (With in limits, of course. I mean, I don't think anyone would enjoy a four hundred page chapter )

Also, I'm sure that this is fairly obvious but I'd just like to point out that pretty much everything I say/have said/will say about Cathy and her back ground is basically all mine. Let's face it, you don't get all that much information about her in the cannon - I even had to make up her last name because she didn't have one. I'm not going to lay claim to it or anything (it would be a rather hypocritical thing for a fanfiction writer to do!), but I just want to make it clear that my suppositions aren't cannon. 

All right, now that that bit of rambling is done. Thank you GoldAngel2 for both beta reading this chapter and reviewing the last one. Thank you Wolfwood11, Ferrum and Kris Ice for reviewing since the last time I've posted. Kris Ice: Actually, I wasn't sure what I was going to have it be for, but those are some good ideas. I hope you won't mind if I decide to use them if it ever comes up :)

Talked about long chapter, talked about Cathy, said my thank you's . . . you know, I think that's everything. So, without further delay: Chapter 8! *)

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Cathy woke up alone and, this morning, it only took her a few seconds to remember why. Daniel didn't live here anymore. She didn't know why she always forgot that - it had been over two weeks now and she still woke up in the morning expecting him to be there. Wishing he was there. 

She just couldn't understand it. He'd been an absolutely useless man. A leech who'd taken advantage of her hard work and never offered to help her. She should be happy that he was gone; she wanted to be happy that he was gone. 

Eight years. He'd had eight years to make something of himself and he hadn't done it - hadn't even tried! All he'd been interested in doing was eating the food she worked so hard to pay for and watch TV. That was all he did and for eight long years, she had just let him do it. 

Until that fateful day, almost two weeks ago, when she'd decided that she had had enough. She had told him that if he didn't want to start pulling his own weight around here than he could just leave. He hadn't liked that and there had been some harsh words said by the both of them (making her happy that Jimmy was already in bed and didn't have to hear it). In the end, Daniel had chosen to go, obviously not caring for her or Jimmy enough to stay.

She wanted to be happy but she wasn't. And, even though it made her furious with herself, she knew that if he called her and tried to make up, she'd let him back into her life. Just like that because, as useless as he was, as much of a jerk as he was, and even though he had left her, he was the father of her child and she still loved him. Probably would always love him. 

Cathy only hoped that, one day, she'd be able to forgive herself for that. 

She sighed and immediately started coughing. The fit lasted for a few minutes and once it was over, her throat was raw and her mouth was full of spit. As she spat into the wastebasket, she remembered what had happened last night and supposed that she should be grateful that whatever she'd spit up wasn't in her lungs anymore. 

After wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she tried taking a few deep breaths. When that didn't make her cough again, she figured that she would be all right. At least, outside of her throat, she felt okay. Which was good because she didn't want to go back to the hospital if she could avoid it.

She still felt tired and she looked at the clock. 9:30. A little more sleep probably wouldn't hurt but it was really about time to get up; especially since she had some things she wanted to take care of before Jimmy got home and, hopefully, before Jet woke up. Showering, for example. And finding out if she had enough food to postpone her weekly trip to the store. Maybe get some house work done too . . .

Shaking her head, she wondered if it was strange to worry about such mundane things the morning after going through a life and death experience. Well, she thought as she dragged herself out of bed, at least I'm being practical. That was much better than running around like a chicken with its head chopped off or having hysterics like people did in movies.

She stretched and unwillingly slid out from under the covers. Mornings were not her favorite time and she always hated to get up. After a bit of looking, she put on her bathrobe (which was only a little less ugly than it was comfortable) and made sure that everything that was supposed to be covered was (if Jet was awake, she had no intention of giving him a show!). When she was satisfied that this was so, she opened the bedroom door and made her way into the living room.

It looked like Jet was still asleep. Just as well, she thought walking passed the couch, she didn't want to have any sort of conversation with Jet until she was more awake - she hadn't tried talking yet, but she was sure that words containing more than a couple syllables would be beyond her. Considering the things that she wanted to talk to him about, it would be best if she could say more than 'Good morning."

She walked into the bathroom and quietly closed the door behind her. After stepping into the shower and just letting the scalding water run over her for a few minutes, she felt much more alive. Noticing how much of the water running down the drain was tinted black from the soot, she realized once more how lucky she'd been to make it out of the hotel alive. One of these days, she was really going to have to thank Jet for that.

As she got to work on her hair, she decided that she didn't have any excuse to put off thinking about . . . everything she'd stopped herself from thinking the night before. She was more or less awake; she'd be alone for a while; and she had nothing else to do that was pressing for the next ten minutes or so. Also, she wanted to have at least thought these things through before she talked to Jet again.

As far as he was concerned, there were really only three things that she needed to think about. In order they were: Jet was a cyborg soldier who defended the world from evil; Jet wasn't the jerk she'd thought he was and she'd wronged him; and she had some warm feelings when it came to Jet.

The first she had already come to a decision about. Jet Link was a cyborg - so what? There was a small voice inside her head telling her that she couldn't possibly be as comfortable with the whole cyborg thing as that thought sounded but she did her best to ignore it. She knew that he was a good man and those wires in his leg could not change that. As for his past exploits as 002, those also didn't matter to her - he'd risked his life to save her's and that was more than enough to make him a hero.

Those thoughts were directly related to the second. She'd been wrong about Jet Link; he was a much better man than she had given him credit for. And now that she was looking back on everything without her rage colored glasses, she could see that she had been unnecessarily cruel to him. He had been brainless at times but he had done nothing that deserved the ripping into she had given him time and time again. 

Cathy wanted to apologize but wasn't sure how to do that. "I'm sorry for treating you so badly, Jet - although you did deserve some of it at the time," she tried aloud before shaking her head. Not quite right and a shade too blunt even for her. She certainly didn't want to leave him with the impression that she was only apologizing because he'd saved her life and not because she really meant it . . . 

Well, it didn't seem like he was expecting an apology anyway. So, while she didn't feel exactly right with it, she saw that there was no hurry. It wasn't like he was going anywhere anytime soon. At least, he hadn't said anything about leaving. 

Then there was the third thing. She guessed it wasn't all that odd that she should be having warm feelings for Jet - considering what he'd done for her. It was just that there seemed to be more to it than just caring if he was all right and she wasn't sure what it could be. Or why there should be anything else. Or if there actually was anything else.

It was strange to be so unsure. He was a good guy and all but she couldn't possibly like him. He seemed like the kind of guy who'd probably grow on her given time, but she couldn't possibly like him already. She knew nothing about the man! And those stories that Jimmy told her and what she guessed didn't count as knowing. 

After thinking about it for a minute, Cathy had to admit that she did know a few things about him for certain. He didn't have a lot in the way of common sense but he did care about her son. He was good man despite any of the other faults he had. He also liked his coffee black with two sugars*. The first she had always known on some level and the second she had only come to know recently. The last she knew because that's what he always got when he came to the Sweet Pot. At least, that's what he got those times she let him have coffee - 

She thought she heard a phone ringing and wondered who on Earth could be calling her home this early in the morning. Maybe it was Tammi; she was on the morning shift on Saturdays and she sometimes called to beg Cathy to take over for her. That girl's early morning phone calls was one of the reasons she'd unplugged her phone in the first place. 

Then she realized, as she got out of the shower, that it might not be for her at all. It might be that Doctor Gilmore calling for Jet. She had been just about ready to throw on her bathrobe and get the phone when it stopped ringing. That meant that Jet had answered it or whoever had called had given up.

Either way, now there was no reason to rush out there at the moment. She toweled off and remembered that she had forgotten to bring any clothes with her. Reluctantly, she put her bathrobe back on. Reluctantly because, while it was more comfortable than it was ugly, it was pretty darn ugly and she found that it wasn't the sort of thing that she wanted to wear while she had company . . . 

She shook her head, feeling annoyed with herself. There was no point in whining about it, was there? Besides, she seriously doubted that Jet cared what her bathrobe looked like anyway. She was just being stupid; that's all. 

Cathy brushed her teeth and worked the knots out of her hair (pretending that she wasn't primping in the mirror as she did so) before putting the latter up in a pony tail and heading out into the livingroom again. It looked like Jet was awake now but since he didn't seem to notice her presence, she walked back to her bedroom instead of greeting him. 

Once she was back in her room she spent a few minutes deciding what to wear. Then she wondered why she was thinking so much about it. Then she sighed at herself for acting so silly and grabbed a shirt and a skirt that were casual but nice (just in case she did have to leave the apartment today).

After getting dressed, she walked back into the living room. Jet still didn't seem to notice that she was there and, as she came closer, she saw that he was deep in thought. Cathy had been about to speak to him when she noticed the expression on his face. He looked so . . . not sad, exactly but definitely wistful. She couldn't remember ever seeing him look that way and she wondered what was wrong.

"Good morning, Jet."

He started at the sound of her voice but recovered quickly. "Hey Cathy." His smile would have fooled her a few days ago, but not now that she was paying attention. However, if he wanted to pretend that nothing was wrong, it wasn't her place to pry. 

She had been going to ask if he'd slept well when "Is something wrong?" came out instead. 

Jet's smile faltered but he didn't abandon it. "No, nothing's wrong - although, if you'd like to help me up, that'd be good." 

Cathy knew that the last thing had been purely a diversionary tactic and she considered calling him on it before realizing that she probably wouldn't get anything out of him that way. Carefully, as not to jar his leg anymore than she had to, she pulled him upright and propped his leg on the coffee table. "Is that better?"

He nodded, "Thanks."

"No problem." She waited a few seconds for him to say something before coming to the conclusion that Jet wasn't very good at small talk Well, she had to admit that she wasn't much better at it. "I'm going to make some coffee, you want some?"

"Coffee?" The smile on his face became a bit more genuine. "I could go for coffee. I want it -"

She cut him off. "Black with two sugars, I know." Smiling at his slightly shocked expression, she added, "It's only how you have it whenever you come to the Sweet Pot."

"When you let me have coffee." His voice was teasing but she wasn't sure if it was just her imagination that he sounded a little hurt as well . . . 

She shook off her guilt and said sweetly: "Next time you can have as much coffee as you want."

"Really?"

She pretended to consider it. "Well, as long as you behave yourself."

He crossed his arms. "There's always a catch." The almost pouting look on his face was too outrageous to be real and Cathy couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped her. 

"You're too much," she said as she headed to the kitchen. She could just hear Jet say "Too much what?" as the door partially closed behind her. Shaking her head, she got out the coffee grounds and set up her coffee maker. Working at a coffee shop, she supposed that she should be sick of the stuff; quite the opposite, she found that her mornings weren't complete with out at least one cup.

It wasn't just the caffeine - although, that was part of it. It was the warmth in her hands when she held the cup and the bitter taste of it on her tongue. If she didn't worry about staining her teeth and becoming addicted (all right, more addicted) to caffeine, she'd drink it all the time. As it was, she limited herself to one or two cups in the morning and that was it . . . Well, most of the time anyway.

The coffee was brewed relatively quickly. Mainly because she only ever bothered to brew a couple cups at a time - anything more than that was a waste as she had always been the only one to drink coffee in this apartment. After setting up the cups (being sure to put sugar in Jet's and milk in her own), she poured the coffee and headed back into the livingroom.

Jet smiled gratefully as she handed him his cup. "Thank you." Then he drank almost half of it in one gulp and she wasn't sure if she was more amused or repulsed. Really, sometimes he acted just like a child!

She took a seat next to him and took some deliberately dainty sips from her own cup, trying to show him that this was the way it was supposed to be done. He gave her a strange look before shrugging and turning his attention back to his coffee.

They sat there for a few minutes in companionable silence and Cathy's mind began to wander. There was something important that she needed to talk to Jet about, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember what it was. She remembered that she'd been thinking about it when she'd been trying to get to sleep this morning . . . What was it? 

After a couple moments of deep thought, it had come back to her. Jimmy, what were they going to tell Jimmy? The reason Jet was staying at her apartment was easy enough to explain but after that . . . Well, she wasn't sure how Jimmy would handle the rest of it - heck, she wasn't sure she had a handle on everything herself! If he should even be told the rest of it at all was something that needed to be addressed.

But it wasn't really her decision, was it? It really was Jet's choice and she wouldn't feel right if she took it away from him. Which was why it was important that she talk to him about it before Jimmy came home. 

"Jet?" 

"Hmm," he looked up from his coffee with a frown, no doubt hearing the anxiousness in her voice. 

She took a second to think of exactly what she wanted to say. "Jimmy's coming home soon." 

He nodded slowly, obviously not seeing what she was getting at.

"What do you want to tell him?" At his 'about what' expression, she elaborated, "About you."

He sighed and set his cup on the table. "I don't want to tell him anything." He looked as if he expected her to argue with him.

He was going to be in for a surprise. "All right." She couldn't say she was happy about lying to her son but, remembering when he'd snapped at her last night for cleaning his wound, she had a few good ideas of why Jet would want to. And she couldn't blame him.

Jet opened his mouth as if he was going to make some sort of rebuttal before realizing that she'd agreed with him. "Okay then," he said at last.

There was something else that Cathy wanted to ask him but she found herself hesitating as she opened her mouth to ask it. It'd be an awful lot like prying and she didn't really know him well enough to do that. Still, seeing as they'd decided not to bring Jimmy into this, now would be the best time to ask if she wanted to know. And she did want to know. 

"Can I ask you something?"

"About what?" He asked warily, as if he already knew what she wanted to ask.

Her feeling that it was none of her business warred briefly with her curiosity and lost. "Those stories you told Jimmy? Were they true?"

He picked up his coffee and took a sip before he answered. "Mostly."

"Mostly?" Her next question was out of her mouth before she could stop it. "So, what really happened?"

Jet just stared at her a minute and she could see the wheels turning as he came to a decision. "Are you sure you want to know? I'm not going to sugar coat it for you like I did for Jimmy."

She smiled at him. "I think that I can handle it."

He smiled back at her but it wasn't a completely nice smile. "That's what you say now." Draining his cup before setting it on the table, his face lost its humor. "All right, this is a long one, so you might as well make yourself comfortable."

Settling back on the couch, she couldn't help but notice the sudden weariness on his face. She immediately started to feel guilty; she didn't really know what he'd say, but she could tell already that it'd be hard for him. It wasn't right to make him dredge stuff up just to satisfy her morbid curiosity. It wasn't like he owed her an explanation - it wasn't like he owed her anything. 

She wanted to tell him that he didn't have to do this, but before the words could even form in her throat he began to speak. 

"It all started with this organization called Black Ghost . . ."

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To be continued . . .

* Made this up. I have no idea how Jet would take his coffee. (I didn't really have to foot note this, but I wanted to. So there!)


	9. Jet Explains and Cathy Questions

(*Author's note: Here is Chapter 9. This chapter has been the bane of my existence for the last two weeks. I've revised it almost five times and I'm -still- not sure that it's quite right . . . Oh well. This is another long chapter (with good reason!) and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it the first time :)

Anyway, on to business! GoldAngel2 gets two 'thank you's because she beta read this one (twice!) and reviewed the last chapter. I'd also like to tell her that this chapter will have a few surprises in it - I hope that you like them! Strata, Kris Ice, stungun millie and Wolfwood11 each have a 'thank you' coming to them as well. So, Thank you, thank you, thank you and thank you! 

Wolfwood11: The link didn't work but it sounds cute from the way you describe it :)

That's about it. So, on to chapter 9! *)

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"It all started with an organization called Black Ghost," Jet began in a quiet voice that he knew sounded tired. He didn't really want to do this and he wondered why the heck he hadn't said 'no.' It would have been so easy to say 'no.' He was sure that she would have taken 'no' for an answer. He should have said 'no.' He'd wanted to . . .

But he hadn't and now he was committed. "Really, the only thing you have to know about them is that they made weapons which they sold to countries all over the world - a Death Merchant that reaped a tidy profit from the seeds of war."

Cathy seemed underwhelmed. "All they did was sell weapons? Almost every country in the world has done that!"

"I'm sure they have," Jet said agreeably before continuing in a more somber tone, "but I doubt that they started wars just to sell them."

She considered it before nodding. "All right." Then she cocked her head at him. "But what do they have to do with you?"

Jet knew that Jimmy had told her at least a few of the stories that he'd told him so the question came as a slight surprise before he remembered that he had never told Jimmy that part of it. Jet's thoughts at the time had been that it wouldn't do to have the heroes be created by the bad guy - he'd decided that Jimmy was probably a little too young to appreciate that irony. 

"I'm getting to that," he said, smiling at her impatience. Jimmy was a lot like that too; the more time he spent with Cathy, the more he could see why Jimmy had become the way he was. The main difference between them was that Cathy seemed much more uptight. Actually, he figured that she was one of the most tightly wound people that he'd ever met. Although, come to think of it, she'd seemed a little less so lately . . .

She was giving him a 'well?-get-on-with-it' gesture and he realized that he'd been stalling. There was really no point in stalling; this was what she wanted to know. Still, he had a heavy feeling in his stomach and he wasn't sure why. He forced it away and began talking again. "Well, about 40 years ago, they got it into their heads to create a new kind of weapon. Something better than just a new kind of gun or tank. An intelligent weapon that could be used to fight anywhere - even in space. They decided to make -"

"Cyborgs?" She interrupted, sounding shocked. "They built you?"

He nodded, not caring for the word 'built,' but conceding that it was basically true. 

"You're supposed to be a weapon?" Her voice was almost confused, as if she'd never considered this explanation for the rockets in his legs. Maybe she hadn't; certainly, he'd done nothing to make her think that that was the reason. He wondered what she had thought before deciding that it probably didn't matter now anyway.

He forced a chuckle in an attempt to lighten the suddenly tense mood. "Yep, that's me. Cyborg soldier 002. Super weapon."

She frowned at him. "That's not funny, Jet."

No, he supposed that it wasn't. He sighed before he could stop himself. "It's true though. That's what I was made for."

Judging by the look of fear on her face, he knew that he wouldn't like whatever she was going to say. "Were you ever human?" 

Sometimes, he hated being right. "Of course I was," he snapped, noticing that her eyes had widened but too hurt to care. Did she think he was robot or a really fancy can opener or something? Was that what she thought? He saw her hand go to her mouth, as if she was going to be sick. He felt a little sick himself - among other things.

Jet was completely and utterly floored. After what they'd been through, she didn't think he was human? That he'd ever been human? How could she even doubt that enough to ask? What was wrong with her? He'd saved her life and he still wasn't good enough to be a person? What the heck did she want from him? He was just about ready to explode at her and really let her have it, when something stopped him. 

This wasn't completely her fault. The fact of the matter was that he should have known that no one could take things in stride as easily as Cathy had appeared to. It hadn't been fair of him to expect her to take this well and it wasn't as if he'd done anything to prepare her. Although, he wasn't sure how else he could have done it, he saw that he did sort of spring this on her. If he was in her position, he doubted that he would've done much better. 

Unfortunately, knowing that didn't change the fact that he felt angry and, maybe, even a little betrayed. He would have liked nothing better than to be able to get up and go for a walk until he calmed down. Since he couldn't do that without seriously hurting himself, he settled for crossing his arms and turning as far away from her as his propped leg would allow. "Cathy, I can't do this."

For a long awkward moment, neither of them said anything. Then her hand touched his shoulder.

"Jet?"

The concern in her voice made him want to say something but he knew that opening his mouth at the moment would be a mistake. There were a lot of things on the tip of his tongue begging to be said but, angry as he felt, very few of them were anything he wanted Cathy to hear.

"Jet, I'm sorry."

Of course, he'd never had very good control of his tongue. "Why? I'm just a machine - it's really a waste of time to apologize to an old tin can like me." Then, before he could stop himself, he added, "Do me a favor and don't pretend that's not what you're thinking!"

The hand left his shoulder and he had a brief moment to be surprised at missing its presence before Cathy grabbed both his shoulders and forced him to face her. She looked furious and the cynical part of his mind wondered what reason she had to be angry.

"Don't ever let me hear you say that again!"

"Why not?" He could feel himself shaking although he wasn't sure with what. "That must be you think. Why else would you even ask that?"

Her eyes softened (as did the grip on his shoulders). "I . . ." Cathy sighed as she let go of him, "I don't know." Putting her hand on her forehead, she spoke again, "I mean, I know that you're a good guy and I thought that I was okay with the whole cyborg thing but . . ." She trailed off as her hand fell into her lap. "All this talk of weapons; it made me forget that."

She reached out for his shoulder again and he let her. "I'll try not to forget again. I'm so sorry I hurt you."

Jet covered her hand with his and found a smile to give her. "You can't hurt me; I'm indestructible, remember?" While he couldn't deny that he still felt a little hurt, he wanted to forgive her. It helped that it looked like she meant what she'd said. Regrettably, he wasn't much better at forgiving people than he was at apologizing and he hoped that she understood what he meant.

If the relieved smile on her face was any indication, she had. "Right." 

After taking a moment to settle himself, he let go of her hand. "All right, where was I?" He knew his voice was a shade too bright but he figured that, after what had just happened, the rest of the story would be easy. A dark voice in the back of his mind told him that he had to be the stupidest man on the planet, but Jet told it to shut up.

She let go of his shoulder and her concern was unmistakable. "Are you sure?"

He nodded.

Cathy didn't look convinced but seemed willing to let him get away with it. "You were just talking about how Black Ghost wanted to make cyborgs."

"Okay, cyborgs." He took a deep breath as he thought about what he wanted to say. "So, Black Ghost sent out operatives to hire scientists that could write up the plans and to collect guinea pigs for the experiments." Unable to help himself, Jet slipped in a dramatic pause. "That's where me, my friends and Doctor Gilmore come in."

There was a question on her face (no doubt she was wondering why someone who used to work for Black Ghost was helping him now) but seemed willing to keep it to herself at the moment. That suited Jet just fine - the answer was a bit complicated and he figured that he'd end up explaining all that before long anyway. 

"To make a long story short," he paused for a second because he could have sworn that Cathy had muttered, "Too late," under her breath. At her innocent look, he shook his head and decided that he must have been hearing things. He gave her a warning look anyway (just in case) before starting again. "To make a long story short, Black Ghost used those scientists' plans and their advanced technology and made me what I am today."

"Why would you agree to that?" She asked it hesitantly, as if she knew that she might be treading in dangerous territory. Her expression was half wary and half curious, as if she was afraid of how he'd react to the question but still needed to know the answer anyway.

There was no reason for her to worry this time. He couldn't blame her for wanting to know the answer to that question. Jet tried to smile. "They didn't exactly ask my permission." His smile turned into a flat line as he thought about what he'd said.

'Didn't exactly ask permission'? That was putting it so mildly that it was practically untruthful. That made it sound like Black Ghost had tricked him into signing consent forms. 'Sign here if you don't want to become a super cyborg . . . Oh wait, this is the "So, you want to be a cyborg?" contract. Oh well, you've already signed it. Let's get to work!'

If he'd really wanted to be truthful, he should have said: 'They offered me a ride*; drugged me; took me to some horrible little island in the middle of nowhere; strapped me on a table and had their way with me.' He was glad that he hadn't said that. Jet wanted to tell her the truth but he didn't think that she would want to hear the details. Honestly, he could only remember bits and pieces of the things that had happened after getting to that black car anyway, but what he could remember wasn't anything he wanted to talk about. Ever. 

And that hadn't even been the worst part. The worst part had been that no one had taken the time to tell him what was going on or what was happening. He'd had to figure it out for himself and, considering the fact that he'd never been good with technology and the fact that they kept him doped up the whole time . . . By the time he'd figured out what they were doing to him, it had all been over.

All in all, Jet didn't enjoy thinking too much about those early days and he hoped that Cathy would not ask any more about them.

When he saw the look of horror on her face, he realized with a start that he'd actually said some of the things he'd been thinking out loud. He had to start being more careful about that sort of thing! "You mean they just snatched you away and did this?" Then horror faded and she looked merely sad. "That must have been terrible for you."

Jet was more a little uncomfortable with this emotional topic (and her reaction to it) and he tried to brush off her concern. "Yeah, well, that was a long time ago - it's okay now." He smiled weakly in an attempt to look more convincing. 

"Of course it is." Cathy obviously wasn't fooled but seemed to understand that this was something that he didn't want to talk about. 

They sat in silence for a while and Jet had been about to start talking again when Cathy narrowed her eyes in confusion.

"This happened 40 years ago?" At his nod, she smiled and gave him a mock appraising look. "You certainly seem to have aged well."

His chuckle was genuine and more in response to the fact that she was smiling than to what she'd said. "Well, I do try to take care of myself," he said with a grin. When she didn't look amused, he answered her unspoken question. "It did happen 40 years ago, but I . . . They froze me for a long time afterwards."

The smile fell off her face. "Why?"

Jet leaned back, trying to find an easy way of explaining it. "Basically, there was something wrong with us - the first generation of cyborgs. There was some kind of flaw in our design and, after a while, we were in so much pain, we couldn't function. So they froze us and put the cyborg project on hold until they could find a way to fix it**."

"So, how old are you?"

He took a second to think about it. "If you count the time I spent in the freezer, I'm almost 60. If you don't, I'm 19 or so***." Maybe. Truth was that, between being kidnaped, frozen and then on the run, he'd sort of lost track. It suddenly struck him as odd that, until this moment, he really hadn't thought too much about it. Of course, there had been more important things to think about . . . 

He shook his head and realized that Cathy had said something. "What?"

"What happened after that? How did you escape?" 

Jet couldn't help but smile. Her expression and tone reminded him of when he'd been telling Jimmy stories - the only difference was that she was trying to look like she wasn't as interested as she was. "That's a whole other story in itself and I'm starting to feel a little tired," he said, stretching for effect.

He had to admit that the fleeting look of disappointment on her face amused him a little - particularly because she'd been trying to act like she wasn't that interested. Pretending to reconsider, he smiled slyly. "But, if you got me something to eat, I think I could find the strength to tell you then."

She laughed as she playfully punched him in the shoulder - if he'd been told a week ago that Cathy could be playful, he wouldn't have thought it possible. "You are really something, Jet." Standing, she shook her head at him and sighed. "All right, I'll feed you. But I think all I've got is some Ramen - is that okay?"

Actually, amid all of those cooking fiascos, he'd been living on the stuff and, frankly, he wasn't all that fond of it. Still, he was a guest and he supposed that he should be happy that she was going to feed him at all. With a smile that he didn't feel, he said: "Ramen's wonderful." Smiling wider, he added: "Can't get enough of the stuff."

Cathy stared at him for a long moment. "Jet?" She asked in a measured tone.

"What?"

"Promise me something."

"What?"

"Don't ever consider becoming an actor; you're not very good at it." Then she smiled and headed out into the kitchen before he had a chance to reply. 

Jet watched the door shut behind her and closed his mouth when he realized that it was open. She was really something. He wondered fleetingly whether she was always this way when she warmed up to people or if this was for his benefit before deciding that, as interesting as the question was, he was in no position to find an answer at the moment. There were other things to think about anyway.

He leaned back, lacing his hands his head, and shut his eyes. Well, their little chat had certainly gone . . . well. A definite overstatement but, now that he was really thinking about it, he could see that it could have gone much, much worse. He remembered that time in Antarctica - once the professor's daughter had found out what her saviors really were, she'd been so fearful that she couldn't stand to even be around 009****. At least Cathy hadn't done that to him.

He still wondered why he'd agreed to tell her the truth in the first place. 

All he owed her for was her hospitality and that alone didn't buy her the right to his life story. He'd actually surprised himself when he didn't say 'no.' He usually didn't talk about personal things if he could avoid it - especially not to people he'd only been friendly with for less than a day. And what he'd told Cathy . . . he'd never told anyone those things before. 

Of course, that had been partly because there had been no need. His friends certainly knew all about Black Ghost and didn't need him to give them a recap. And while the stories he'd told Jimmy were based (at least loosely) on his own life, they had been just that: stories. When he'd been telling them, it had been like 002 was just a character he'd made up and the things that happened were just plot elements to entertain a lonely little boy. Nothing more. 

This had been different. No matter how hard he'd tried to distance himself from it (at least, to start with), all of the things he'd talked about (and would talk about) were a part of his life. While he hadn't thought that talking about everything would be easy (it was pretty personal, after all), he honestly hadn't thought it'd be this hard. He just hoped that she appreciated how much he was trusting her by telling her all . . . of . . . this . . .?

He trusted her? When the heck had that happened? He didn't trust anyone! 

Well, that wasn't exactly true anymore, was it? In his mind, there had been exactly nine people he trusted besides himself: Doctor Gilmore and his fellow 00 cyborgs. It'd be a lie to say that it had been easy - trust was something that didn't come naturally to him. It had also taken him a long time to realize that these people were good people, even if they annoyed him sometimes, and worthy of his trust. The day that he'd managed to get that though his skull had been one of the best days of his life.

And he guessed that now he'd have to add one more person to that list. Jet wasn't sure how far that trust actually extended in Cathy's case but it was obvious that he trusted her at least a little bit. Otherwise, why else would he tell her the truth? And why else would he have continued to talk to her about it after that careless comment she'd made about his humanity?

Well, no, the last had more to do with the fact that she'd seemed to genuinely regret saying what she'd said along with the fact that he'd wanted to forgive her than anything else. Still, the point was that he did trust her and he had no idea why. It looked like he had another thing to figure out and there was that dark voice again assuring him that it wouldn't be the last.

Sighing, Jet opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. "Why does everything have to be so complicated?" 

Unsurprisingly, the ceiling had no answers for him.

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To be continued . . .

* As shown in the flashback from "Hero"

** As described in the episode "Black Ghosts" (I think). The subtitles weren't the best and I had to guess a little bit :)

*** I know that the Official Website says he's 18, but I figure that it's been at least a year (if not more) for him by this time.

**** This happened in "Operation Auroras." At least that's the impression I got from the end of that episode.

(*End note: Wow, a lot of footnotes this time. Next time I have so many, I'll find something else besides ******** to use, I promise. Feel free to tell me if the footnotes are more annoying than helpful. *)


	10. In Search of Food and Other Things

(*Author's note: After long last, here is chapter 10. 

This time I have a couple orders of business to take care of before getting to the chapter proper. 

First, I'd just like to make you aware that this story isn't going to be updated as regularly as it has been in the past. I'm not taking a break from this story by any means and I've still got the inspiration to go on, it's just that I usually need a week or two to write a chapter and another week or so to polish said chapter. Revisions are a witch with a capital B, but it's very necessary - trust me, you wouldn't want to read this before the polishing :) . So, unless I'm hit by a spell of perfect first drafts, I wouldn't expect the time between updates to be any less than two weeks.

Second, I'd like to thank GoldAngel2 for betaing this chapter and for reviewing the last one. I'd also like to thank stungun millie, Wolfwood11, Strata and Kris Ice for reviewing chapter 9. Thanks, you guys!

Kris Ice: in the words of Q: "You are a veritable fountain of good ideas!" I'll have to see if ff.net will let me do supercripts, but even the (numbers) would be better than ******************* if I have a lot of footnotes.

Wolfwood11: Those were some good pics. It's kind of sad though that some of the fan art kicks the butt of the animation they use in the show.

Third, I . . . hmmm. Well, I guess there really isn't a third thing. 

So, without further delay . . . chapter 10! *)

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Cathy chuckled to herself as the kitchen door shut behind her. She hadn't stuck around long enough to let Jet make some kind of retort, but there had been no missing the open mouth look of astonishment on his face. He sure hadn't expected that one.

Neither had she, really. It wasn't as if they were exactly friends, although, she thought that she might like them to be someday, and it wasn't as if she'd even known him that long. Usually, she only teased people when she'd known them for a long time - when she was comfortable with them and knew how they'd react. But, when it came to Jet, it seemed like all the rules went out the window . . .

Or did they? The strange thing was that, even though she didn't know him all that well, she genuinely did feel comfortable with him. Well, at least comfortable enough to let him into her home -although it had seemed like a natural decision at the time, she realized that she could have set Jet up in his own apartment and just checked up on him every now and then. That would have been enough.

So, she had to feel at least a little comfortable with him. More than a little, seeing as you fell asleep in his arms, a dry voice reminded her. Cathy could feel the blush creeping up her face as she thought about it. She wasn't sure if the blush was from remembering how it had felt to be held or the embarrassment of remembering how she'd been blubbering for no good reason.

Maybe a little bit of both. Either way, she didn't really want to think about it right know and she figured that it was about time to do what she'd come in here to do anyway. Her face was still hot but she ignored it in favor of rooting through the cabinet to see if she actually had anything to feed Jet (she wasn't feeling all that hungry this morning). 

From the look of things, unless she wanted to make something using only soda crackers and vanilla extract for dinner, she was going to have to do some shopping today. She'd been hoping that she wouldn't have to but she guessed it was for the best. It might be good to get out of the apartment for a while, but it would nice to know, before she left, how long Jet was planning to stay.

While she knew she could afford to put him up for a while (at least, she didn't imagine that the expenses would be much different from when Daniel was here), she didn't want to buy a week's worth of groceries for three people and have it go to waste. That was something she couldn't afford to do.

Not that it would do much good to ask him. How would he know since he hadn't gotten a hold of his -

That phone call earlier. Maybe it had been that Doctor Gilmore calling back like Jet had said he would. She'd meant to ask, but it had completely slipped her mind. Well, once the soup was done, she'd make sure to find out. 

After a bit of searching, Cathy had managed to locate a single bag of chicken ramen. She hoped it would be enough for Jet. There wasn't really anything else that was edible besides the crackers and vanilla - unless she counted the Mystery Can -

- which she didn't. The Mystery Can had no label and it was covered in several years - maybe decades - of dust. If memory served, it'd been in the apartment for at least as long as she'd lived there. She knew that she should probably just throw it away, but every time she tried, the feeling that it could prove useful someday stopped her.

Well, it wouldn't prove useful today. 

Setting a small pan of water on the stove to boil, she just stood there awhile, not thinking about much of anything at all. Or, at least, trying not to. She'd managed to put it out of her mind for a while, but she was smart enough to know that she couldn't stave it off forever. Besides, it wouldn't be doing anyone any favors to completely forget that it'd happened.

'Were you ever human?' Worse enough to have even thought it after what they'd been through - ten times worse to have actually said it to his face. Cathy would be willing to bet that with those four words, she'd managed to hurt him more this morning than she had the whole time she'd known him. 

She'd felt like throwing up when she saw that look on his face. He'd looked so . . . he looked like she'd betrayed him. In a way, she had. For some reason, he'd trusted her enough to tell her the truth and she'd let him down. He'd passed her the ball and she'd fumbled it. Badly. 

It wasn't completely her fault though. All of this was a lot to take in and, to be perfectly honest, the fact that the guy in her livingroom was supposed to be some kind of super weapon wasn't the sort of thing that was easy to take in stride. 

True or not, those things were just excuses and ones that Cathy wasn't happy with. She kept thinking that she should have done things differently. Maybe if she'd been less careless, the whole mess wouldn't have happened. Or maybe if she hadn't deluded herself into thinking that she was okay with the whole cyborg thing, she could have told him that she was still having problems. Or maybe if she'd been actually thinking about what Jet had been saying when he was talking about what Black Ghost made, she wouldn't have been caught so flatfooted when he'd said what he was. Or maybe - 

Now she was completely disgusted with herself. No amount of 'Maybe If's would change what had happened.'Maybe If's weren't any better than 'If Only's in her book and she wasn't going to waste time worrying about 'Might Have Been's. 

And, as much as she wanted to, there was really no point in beating herself up over it now, considering that Jet had already accepted her apology. Even if he'd accepted it a lot more quickly than she thought he should have, it wasn't as if she could apologize again! 

Anyway, he obviously wanted to put it behind them and she owed it to him not to bring it up. If he wanted to act like everything was okay, then that was the way it would be. Still, she couldn't help thinking that, if their positions had been reversed, she probably wouldn't have let him off as easily. 

Of course, maybe she was just more vindictive than he was. Even though she hadn't heard the whole story yet, the fact that Jet was able to call someone who had been at least partially responsible for stealing his life away a friend . . . well, it spoke volumes about his powers of forgiveness -

She heard a hissing sound and realized with a start that the water was boiling over. With a curse she took the pan off the burner and dumped some of the water out into the sink. After putting it back on the stove, she dumped the noodles in. Grabbing a fork and, stabbing at the square mass in the pan, she managed not to think about anything more worrying than what she was going to buy at the grocery store until the soup was done. 

After plopping the noodles into a bowl and making sure that she had every thing she needed, she took a minute to make sure that she was really okay. She wasn't a great actress and she didn't want to make Jet any more uncomfortable than he probably was already. When she was satisfied that she was ready (artfully ignoring the voice that said she wasn't the one who had a reason not to be okay), Cathy opened the kitchen door and stopped short. 

Jet was staring at the ceiling. Again. She glanced up and saw a ceiling suspiciously absent of anything worth staring at. 'See any gold up there?' was on the tip of her tongue, but it died on her lips when she noticed how haggard he looked. She didn't know how she'd missed it before (unless she'd some how gotten used to seeing him look like that), but she couldn't help but see it now.

His face was still dirty and his clothes were still charred and there was no mistaking the weariness in his posture. She immediately felt like slapping herself. What had she been thinking! Playing twenty questions with him before cleaning him up or, at least, making sure he was comfortable? 

And, even if she didn't care for Jet's sake, Jimmy would be home soon. The last thing she wanted her son to see was his friend looking like he'd just been in a losing battle with a barbeque pit. 

Well, once Jet was finished eating, she'd do something about it. She wasn't exactly sure how she'd clean him up, but she'd burn that bridge when she got that far. She just hoped that he wouldn't make a fuss . . .

"Cathy?"

Jet was looking at her questioningly and she realized that she'd been staring at him. She could feel another blush coming on (two in one day - a new record!) and tried to will it away as she handed him the bowl. "I hope you're not too hungry. This is all I've got until I go shopping."

She'd been merely stating a fact, but Jet must have taken it as a hint because he suddenly seemed pained. "Well, I don't have a lot of money left, but if you got to my apartment, there might be some in the -"

"Don't be stupid," she cut him off, trying to rein in her temper. She knew that he was just trying to be helpful and she doubted that he'd understand why his offer would upset her. However, there were some things that she just wasn't good at. "Do you honestly think I'd make you pay to stay here!"

From the look on his face, her words came out a bit more heated than she'd wanted them too. Still, he didn't seem willing to give up just yet. "I don't want to be a burden." He half smiled, "Anyway, it's not like I'm going to the mall anytime soon."

Cathy laughed. "No, I don't suppose you are." Then she spoke seriously and hoped that he'd understand. "I don't want to take your money. You're not going to have a broken leg forever, you know? You're going to need it when you get back to your own apartment." 

There was a flash of . . . guilt? pain? in his eyes, but he looked away from her, almost hiding in his hair, before she could be sure that she'd actually seen it. "Yeah." He looked back and sighed in defeat. "Well, if you change your mind . . ."

She nodded, willing to accept the compromise. "I'll let you know."

"Okay." He turned his attention to his soup and took a few bites before looking back up at her, cocking his head. "Are you just going to stand there?"

"Actually, no." Something she could do while he was eating had just occurred to her. "Is your apartment unlocked?"

"What?" He looked confused. "I guess so, but I thought you didn't want -"

She waved hand and shook her head. "No, no. I meant so I could get you some clothes."

His confusion didn't lift and it was joined by wariness. "Why?"

Cathy didn't know why he was being so suspicious about it, but found that she really didn't care. "Because I'm not having you fester in those clothes for a week or how ever long you're staying here! Besides, you can't tell me you're comfortable in those."

It was hard to tell under all that hair, but she thought that he looked a little embarrassed. "I'm fine." 

She crossed her arms. "Well, I'm not. Jimmy's coming home soon and I don't think it'd be good for him to see you like this. You know how much he cares about you."

He was clearly unhappy about it, but it seemed that playing the 'Jimmy Card' had done the trick. Throwing his hands up in surrender, he said grudgingly: "Okay, fine. Yeah, I think it's unlocked."

She smiled sweetly at him and pretended not to notice his annoyance. "Thank you. Now, will I be able to find your clothes or do you keep them hidden?"

Jet was obviously unamused. "They're in a drawer in the bedroom."

Nodding, she uncrossed her arms. "Okay, I'll be right back." She began to turn away but stopped when she noticed that Jet was still looking at her. "You better eat that before it gets cold."

Then she turned and walked out of her apartment. On to Jet's. As she started the long climb up the stairs, she wished (not for the first time) that this building had an elevator. 

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To be continued. 


	11. Jet's Apartment is Explored

(Author's note: All right! Chapter 11 is here! Woot!

There are a few things I have to discuss, but before I do that . . .

Thank's go to GoldAngel2 for beta reading this chapter and for reviewing my last one. Thank's also go to Wolfwood11, Strata and Kris Ice for reviewing chapter 10. So: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Okay, some things I have to talk about. Firstly, borrowing a little bit from Dave Barry here, the characters in this story are adults and, as adults, some times they think or say things that aren't exactly child friendly. It's not really all that bad (in my opinion) but I figure that you'd appreciate a warning that some things of an adult nature going to be alluded to.

Also, while I was tempted to be . . . evil with this chapter, I decided not to be. As fun as that could have been, I didn't put all the work into writing 10 chapters just to have it turn into another Jet bashing/ humiliation type story. So, no fuzzy handcuffs. ;}

And, for anyone who's clamoring for a Jet pov chapter, don't worry, there'll be one soon. Promise :)

Well, that's it. Here's hoping you enjoy chapter 11! )

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So, this was it. Cathy stood in front of Jet's apartment but made no move to open the door. Despite her earlier ease when she'd talked to Jet, she was less than anxious to go poking around through his things. Partly because she didn't feel comfortable about the idea that she was going to be violating his privacy - Jet's grudging permission notwithstanding, she knew that he didn't really want her to be there. She wasn't sure why, but she was sure he had his reasons.

But mostly, she hesitated because . . . Jet was a single man living on his own. In her experience, men were pigs - especially men Jet's age. She remembered only too well that time when Maria had roped her into helping her 20 year-old son move into a new apartment; she'd never seen so many sticky magazines in her whole life. And that had been the least of it -

She shook her head, trying not to think about the other stuff she'd found. Besides, she wasn't going to be looking anywhere except for Jet's dresser and, if she did happen to find something like that just lying around somewhere . . . Well, she and Jet would have to have a long talk before she let Jimmy hang out here again.

Opening the door and stepping inside, the first thing she noticed was that the light was on. She wondered why before realizing that he'd probably had been in a rush to leave the night before. Since the sun shining through the windows was more than enough to see by, she clicked off the lights (as she doubted he could well afford paying for electricity that he wasn't using) and looked around.

Compared to her own apartment, this one was pretty small; there were only two doors (bedroom and bathroom, she assumed) and the kitchen was less its own room than a part of the livingroom. There were some dirty dishes in the sink and some food wrappers on the couch but, considering what she'd been expecting, the place was actually pretty clean. And, to her relief, there didn't seem to be anything . . . questionable lying around.

Which was definitely a good thing because she didn't even want to think about having that conversation with Jet.

There was one thing that did strike her as odd as she made her way over to one of the doors. From the look of things, there wasn't anything, in the livingroom at least, that looked like it didn't come with the apartment. The walls were completely bare - there weren't even any posters - and there weren't any sort of personalized touches anywhere. Maybe she was reading more into it than there was, but she got the feeling that, whatever this place was to Jet, it was less of a home and more of a place to live for a while.

Then again, she didn't know how long he'd been living here. If he'd moved in around the same time he'd started hanging around Jimmy, he probably hadn't had the time, or the money (seeing as he had no job) to make the place homey. There was also the possibility that he was too much of a man to care about that sort of thing. Either way, it seemed very . . . lonely.

The door she opened turned out to be for the bedroom. This had been more what she'd been expecting. The bed was unmade; there were some clothes on the floor; and there were several empty cans of soda on the bedside table. Stepping over a shirt, she walked over to the dresser. She'd been about to open the first drawer when she noticed a face down picture frame resting on the dresser top.

Cathy picked it up and turned it over so she could see the picture inside. It was a picture of a group of people standing on a beach, their backs to the sea. All of them wore gleaming black boots, red suits with big yellow buttons and waving yellow scarves. Looking closer, she saw that Jet was standing with them. He was wearing the same - she could only call it a uniform - and he was staring directly into the camera with an unamused look on his face, as if there was somewhere else he'd rather be.

She smiled. That seemed like the Jet she liked and was coming to know! She turned her attention back to the others standing there. Those must be his friends. His cyborg friends. It was strange; there wasn't really anything about any of them that cried to her: "Hey! I'm a cyborg!" She supposed that it was silly of her to expect there to be - she had no idea that Jet was a cyborg until she'd seen the damage to his leg.

Cocking her head, she realized that there was something odd about at least one of them. The silver haired man had something wrong with his eyes. The picture was too grainy for her to tell what that was, but there was something. Still, nothing that she'd pay all that much attention to if she'd passed him on the street.

She set the picture back down on the dresser. So that was Jet's family; she could tell by the way they stood together that more connected them than matching uniforms. Besides, seeing as this was the only picture that she'd seen in the whole apartment, she figured that these people had to be pretty important to Jet for him to have their picture.

Opening the first drawer, she stopped short. Inside was a bundle of red cloth wrapped with a yellow scarf, a pair of long black boots and what could only be a weapon. While it looked an awful lot like the ray guns that she'd seem in Jimmy's comics, this didn't look like a toy. This looked deadly and she didn't even like looking at it. At least now she knew one reason why Jet hadn't wanted her rooting through his dresser. He hadn't wanted her to see his uniform and his gun.

She closed the drawer and opened the one below it. This one held clothes and she grabbed a pillow case off of Jet's bed and started loading it up. Cathy realized as she did so that she'd forgotten to ask him about that phone call earlier - she still didn't know how long he was planning to stay! It wasn't like her to be so distracted and she was starting to feel annoyed with herself. Jet had this way of making her forget what she wanted to say, no doubt about it.

Opening the bottom drawer (because she hadn't seen anything resembling pajamas in the one above it), Cathy found another reason why Jet hadn't wanted her poking through his dra - well, considering what she'd found, she didn't want to finish that thought. Men really were pigs, weren't they?

Now that isn't fair, she chastised herself. He could have bought it to read the articles (1). Right. Because, those were some pretty interesting articles, yes sir. She laughed out loud and shook her head. At least one thing was for certain; there was no doubt that Jet was a man through and through.

Still chuckling, she closed the drawer and looked into the pillow case. Enough clothes for a few days at least. She hadn't found any night clothes, but she figured that, if he wanted them, she had Daniel's to lend him. They were about the same build (although Daniel was a little shorter and a little stockier than Jet). Now that she was thinking about it, she realized that she probably could have lent Jet all of Daniel's clothes while he was here.

After thinking about it for a few moments, she decided that Jet probably wouldn't have been comfortable wearing her husband's things. If she'd been in his shoes, she didn't think that she'd be. She just hoped that she wouldn't have to ruin any of his pants to make room for that leg wound. Well, maybe she could make cut offs using Daniel's if it came to that . . .

Cathy supposed that it was a good thing that she never got around to bringing his clothes to the Salvation Army like she'd been planning to. They certainly would come in useful now, wouldn't they? Considering the way he left, she didn't feel the least bit guilty at the prospect of cutting up Daniel's clothes - well, maybe a little guilty. After all, it'd been more than plain old not having enough time that stopped her from giving those clothes away in the first place.

Partly it'd been because she hadn't wanted a confrontation when he finally came back for them. Mostly, it'd been the hope that he'd come back for more than the clothes. The same hope that made her wake up every morning surprised that he was not there. She closed her eyes and opened them with a sigh.

She looked down at her watch and tried not to think about it anymore. Looked like she'd lingered here for too long already. It was really about time that she got back. Jet had to be finished eating by now and it wasn't as if there was much reason to stick around much longer. She had everything she'd come for.

Slinging the pillow case over her shoulder, she started to make her way out of the apartment. She'd almost locked the door behind her, out of habit, before her common sense took over; if Jet hadn't bothered shutting off the lights when he'd left last night, she doubted that he'd have taken the time to make sure that he had his key. The last thing she wanted to do was lock him out of his own apartment!

As she walked down the stairs back to her floor, she realized that she'd have quite the problem on her hands once she got there. She'd been putting off thinking about it, preferring to burn her bridges when she got to them, but she knew now that there would be no more avoiding it. Somehow, she had to find a way of getting Jet clean that wouldn't completely mortify the boy. Judging by the look he'd had on his face when she'd been talking to him about changing his clothes . . . well, she didn't think that he'd take the suggestion of a bath very well at all.

It'd have to be a bath too. A few swipes with a wash cloth wouldn't come close to getting him clean and a shower was completely out of the question. Standing wouldn't be much fun on that leg of his! She figured that, as long as she made sure that his knee was wrapped up water tight, there wouldn't be any danger in submerging it in the tub.

Still, even if she knew nothing else about him, she'd still know that he was a stubborn and independent young man; she knew that he probably wouldn't want or welcome her help with something like this. But she could be pretty stubborn herself and she wasn't about to let him get away with something stupid just so he could avoid being embarrassed. Besides, it wasn't like she'd actually have to be in there with him. Once she'd helped him into the tub, he could take care of the rest of it himself - there was nothing wrong with his arms!

Somehow, she doubted that that would be much of a comfort to him.

Jet wouldn't make this easy for her; she was sure of that much. Of course, it wouldn't be all that easy for her even if he was completely cooperative. It'd only been two weeks since Daniel had left - she wasn't exactly looking forward to being around a naked man. Cathy wasn't feeling particularly . . . needy, but it'd still serve as a reminder of at least one of the things she was missing even if the man in question wasn't the man she loved.

Arriving at her door, she tried to shake off her suddenly melancholy mood. She knew what would happen if she didn't: she'd get depressed and then she'd wish that Daniel would come back and then she'd get angry at herself for wishing that and then she'd take that anger out on the next convenient target who, in this case, would be Jet.

She wasn't going to let herself do that to him any more if she could avoid it.

Through the door, she could hear the sound of the TV; he must have found the remote. She didn't remember seeing it on the table but it must have been there - she doubted that he'd have been able to go looking for -

She frowned at herself as she realized what she was doing: stalling, pure and simple. Sure, she was certain that Jet was going to be difficult about the bathing thing, but that was no excuse for her, a grown woman, to be standing around in front of the door to her own home just to avoid talking to him about it!

Not giving herself any more time to hesitate, she opened the door and stepped inside her apartment. From where she came in, she could see that the news was on and, as she came around to the side of the couch, she could see the bored expression on Jet's face.

Well, he won't be bored for much longer, a slightly evil voice inside her chuckled. Cathy did her best to ignore it as she spoke.

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(1) This refers to that joke that some guys buy Playboy to read the articles. Rather than to look at the pictures.

(Looks like I can't use shift 8 stars anymore - ff.net took them out the first time I uploaded this chapter. I'm sad now. )


	12. Watching and Washing

(Author's note: Here is chapter 12; a little later than expected but it was unavoidable. Rest assured, that I am still very much into this story and I refuse to let it die after working so hard on it!

. . . Anyway . . .

Thanks go to GoldAngel2 for both beta reading this chapter and reviewing the one before it. Seriously, this story would be a lot different if she hadn't been helping me. So thank you!

Thanks also go to Strata as well as Kris Ice (x2!) for taking the time to review my last chapter.

There's not anything that really needs to be talked about in this author's note so, without further delay, chapter 12!

Enjoy. )

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After finding the remote wedged between the seat cushions, Jet clicked on the TV and began to surf. Cartoons, kid's show, religious channel, soap opera, soap opera, Spanish channel, infomercial, infomercial, sitcom, MTV, news. He went through the cycle a few times before settling on the news.

He wasn't all that interested in what was happening in the world at large and he didn't care what President what's-his-name had to say about that thing over there, but, having watched a lot of TV over the last few weeks, he knew that it was the best choice.

Children's shows (when they were completely stupid) were jaw-droppingly bizarre - the day that he heard "A heart without Jesus is like a donut" (sung by a donut)(1), he'd been in shock for a good ten minutes. The religious channel was out because the whole thing annoyed him. How so many people could believe that there was some kind of just and loving god when the world was so messed up was completely beyond him(2). Soap Operas made no sense; the Spanish channel had some incomprehensible game show on; and infomercials were just stupid.

He didn't mind the music on MTV - he even liked some of it (although it was a lot different from the music he grew up with) - but the videos; the videos! Well, he'd been around, seen his share of things, and there were still things in those videos that would have made him blush had he been the blushing type.

So, mostly, he watched the news and baseball.

Unfortunately, news was slow this morning and not as diverting as he'd hoped it would be. As the anchor woman prattled on about plans for the construction of some sort of public art sculpture in Central Park, Jet found his mind wandering. He wondered how Cathy was getting on in his apartment. It wasn't that he cared about what she thought of the place - it was his apartment after all - it was just that he was a private person by nature and the idea of someone poking around through his things made him feel a little uncomfortable. What made him feel even more uncomfortable was that he couldn't remember where he'd put that . . . purchase of his; he really hoped that he hadn't left it just lying around.

And then there was that picture he'd left on top of the bureau of him and his friends. As a rule, Jet tended not to be overly sentimental but, when he'd left Doctor Kazumi's home, he'd taken that picture with him. Even now, he couldn't have said why he'd taken it but he did like looking at it from time to time. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about her finding it (which she definitely would - Cathy was many things but blind wasn't one of them) but he was sure that his image would take a beating.

He was also a little worried about her finding his blaster but not very. She seemed to have gotten over the fact that he was supposed to be a weapon and he was certain that Cathy wouldn't be stupid enough to mess around with it.

Jet tried to turn his attention back to what was on the screen but found no help there. Now an anchor man was interviewing somebody about some new Broadway musical - nothing Jet was even remotely interested in. Instead, his thoughts turned to his knee. He wondered how it looked - about the only time he'd seen it was back in the hotel and fire light was pretty dim.

He stared at the towel around his leg for awhile before deciding to give in to his morbid curiosity. Carefully as he could, he unwrapped the towel and pulled it away, wincing only a little as the towel stuck around the edges of his skin. He winced again as he finally got a good look at the wound: whatever it lacked in seriousness, it sure made up for in ugliness. He wondered how bad it had looked before Cathy had tried cleaning it . . .

Oh, now there was something that he'd rather not think about! That had not been one of his proudest moments. He still wasn't sure why he'd made such a fuss in the first place but it irked him to no end that he hadn't been able to apologize for snapping at her. To be fair, she hadn't acted like she was expecting one but that wasn't the point. It just wasn't right -

Jet shook his head. No point in worry about it, was there? Forcing it out of his mind, he concentrated on getting the towel back around his knee. Cathy had made it look a lot easier than it was and, after about five minutes of alternately cursing his clumsiness and wincing when he touched the wound, he managed to get the towel to look at least little like it had before he messed with it.

Once that was finished, he tried his luck surfing again. Cartoon, kid's show, religious channel, soap opera, soap opera, Spanish channel, infomercial, infomercial, sitcom, MTV, news. Oooh, a story about kittens. Wow. That was really news, all right. He was going to try clicking through the channels one more time before deciding that he might as well accept the inevitable; he was stuck with the news.

Well, better than nothing. He watched it mindlessly for awhile, not really paying attention to what was on the screen but not thinking too much about other things either for a time until -

"Hi, I'm back."

Jet turned to face her, trying to hide his surprise. He honestly had not noticed Cathy until she'd spoken and he found it a bit disconcerting. He was usually very observant; the fact that she'd snuck up on him was unsettling to say the least. The only explanation he could think of was that he was still a bit tired from last night and he knew that wasn't it.

But, now wasn't really the time to worry about what the real reason was because Cathy was giving him a concerned look which told him that he'd taken too long to respond already. Well, he could fix that. "So, did you find everything?"

She smiled as she took the bag (which he could see was actually a pillow case) off her shoulder and set it on the couch. "Yep. I think there's enough here for a few days anyway." She shrugged, "If it's not enough, I can always lend you some more."

He looked at her and come to the conclusion that none of her clothes would fit.

His confusion must have shown because she laughed and shook her head. "Oh, not mine! I meant my h - Daniel's." Her voice faltered and pain flickered across her features as she finished her sentence. Before he could even think of asking her what was wrong, she recovered and changed the subject.

"I meant to ask you before, did you get a phone call earlier?"

While he was tempted to ask about why she'd looked so upset, he knew better than to try and pry it out of her. "Yeah. Doctor Gilmore."

She sat down next to him. "What did he have to say?"

"They'll be coming for me in a couple days."

"Good to know." Then she frowned. "You're going to be okay for that long?"

It was only her obvious worry that stopped him from saying something sarcastic - while there was only so much concern he could take, he couldn't find it in himself to want to snap at her for caring. "I'll be fine."

"I'm glad."

Silence between them stretched and slowly drifted from being companionable to being awkward. Cathy seemed uncomfortable, uneasy, as if she was trying to think of a way to say something that she'd rather not say. It was a strange look for her and Jet didn't care much for it.

After a few minutes, he couldn't take the look or the silence anymore. "Is something wrong?"

She shook her head slowly. "Not exactly." Then she stood, determination replacing the uneasiness and, as she turned to face him, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was in for it now. "Look, I can't think of a good way to say this, so I'll just say it: you need a bath." Not giving him a chance to comment, she continued. "Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way - but either way, you are going to be clean. If I have to drag you to the tub, I'll do it - don't think I won't!"

At first, Jet only stared at her, not quite certain that he'd heard her right. Then, after taking another look at her challenging expression, he knew that not only had he heard her right, she was very serious about it too. And, while he had his doubts about her ability to drag him anywhere he truly didn't want to go (even taking his current condition into account), he had no doubt at all that she'd be willing to give it a try.

He could tell by the way she was standing that she expected him to make a big deal out of this. And while he had to admit that it'd be a lie to say that he was completely comfortable with the prospect, he figured that, all things considered, there were worse fates than to have an attractive woman help him bathe.

Jet smiled, "Nah, you don't have to do that. I surrender."

"I mean, it's not even like I have to be in there with you once . . ." She trailed off and looked at him with confusion as she realized what he'd said. Then she blushed and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'Thank you,' before smiling. "All right then."

She started walking towards the kitchen. "I'll just go get some plastic bags."

"Plastic bags?" Jet found himself parroting weakly.

He heard her sigh from the kitchen. "Of course - you don't want your knee to get wet, do you?"

"No," he answered even though he was sure that she wasn't actually listening for one. He was a little surprised that he hadn't thought of that himself - even someone who was completely human with a wound like his wouldn't want to get it wet. It was only common sense. 'Well, that explains why you didn't think of it, doesn't it?' commented a voice that sounded an awful lot like 004.

He ignored the voice and tried not to worry about it. He only hoped that whatever Cathy was going to do to waterproof his leg would work; he wasn't anxious to find out what would happen if he got water inside where all the delicate circuitry was. Jet could hear the lecture from Doctor Gilmore now: 'Honestly, 002, don't you have any sense?'

"Not so you'd notice," he said with a slight smile.

There was a loud bang of pots hitting each other from the kitchen and he could hear her cursing under her breath. "Where is that damn duck tape!(3)" A few more crashes later, he heard a triumphant shout. "Found it!"

Jet suddenly wondered if, maybe, he'd given in too quickly.

All in all, Jet decided as the tub filled , it could have been worse. Oh, it'd been pretty embarrassing and he didn't think it was anything that he wanted to repeat but . . . At least Cathy hadn't looked like she was having any easier time with the situation than he was. In a way, he'd found it a bit comforting - if she hadn't had any problems at all, it'd mean that she probably saw him as a child or, worse, a thing. No need to be embarrassed around a machine, after all.

So, he was actually a bit relieved. He didn't say any of that to Cathy because he doubted that she'd understand why he'd feel that way -

"Is everything all right in there?"

Jet nodded before remembering that she wouldn't be able to see it through the curtain. "Yeah."

He could hear her sit down and he saw her shadow. "You never did tell me."

"Huh?"

"About how you escaped from Black Ghost."

"Oh, that." He squirted some shampoo (unfortunately, the only kind that Cathy had smelled like strawberries) into his hand and started working it through his hair. "There's not a whole lot to tell, really."

"I'd still like to know." She seemed to think that this sounded too demanding and she tried to soften it. "If you still want to tell me."

He shrugged. "Why not?" Compared to what he'd already talked to her about, this was easy. "The short version is that Doctor Gilmore - "

"That's the guy who's picking you up, right?"

Jet fished around for the cup floating in the water. "That's the guy. Anyway, he realized one day that Black Ghost wasn't the sort of organization that he wanted to work for and he unfroze us originals, freed the new generation and shut off the security systems so we could escape.(4)" Finding the cup, he filled it with water and dumped it over his head. "That's basically it."

He could hear the frown in her voice when she spoke. "This is the same Doctor Gilmore that . . . made you, right? You mean it took him forty years to decide that he didn't want to stay there anymore?"

Man, he wished that Doctor Gilmore was here to answer this question. Truth was, he'd had that thought sometimes himself but, out of loyalty to Doctor Gilmore, he wouldn't tell her that. "I guess he thought some good might come out of his research - Black Ghost had access to technology that no one else in the world has."

Cathy snorted.

"What's so funny?"

"You mean the guy actually thought that some good could come out of a group called Black Ghost?"

She had a point. Still, Jet felt like he should stand up for the doctor since he wasn't here to defend himself. "Well, uh . . ." Sadly, he could not think of a good defense.

"Never mind, I'm sure he had his reasons." While she didn't sound all that convinced, Jet was grateful for the out anyway.

Cathy's shadow stood. "Well, unless you need anything else . . ."

"There was one thing."

"What?"

He hesitated for a moment, not sure that it was really his business. But then, fair was fair and it wasn't like she had to tell him if she didn't want to. "I was wondering, that guy you mentioned earlier, Daniel, who is he?" Jet was almost sure that he knew the answer to that question but -

"He's my - he's Jimmy's father."

Jet didn't miss how she'd said 'my' first. "That's right, Jimmy told me about that."

"What did he tell you?" She asked it in such a way that Jet knew he was heading into dangerous territory at top speed. At this point, there wasn't an easy way to shift the conversation in a new direction so he figured that he better just answer the question and get it over with.

"Not a whole lot," he said, trying to sound assuring. "Just that he'd left." When she didn't say anything right away, he realized that this had not been a good idea. "I was just curious; you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

He heard her sigh. "If you really must know, I can tell you about it - later. Not now." Her voice sounded a little shaky and Jet felt guilty. "I - I'll be in the living room if you need me. Just yell, I'll hear you."

After the door had shut behind her, Jet sighed despite himself. That hadn't gone so well - not that he'd thought ahead about what he'd asked enough for it to qualify as a 'that.' 'That' brought to mind having a plan of some sort. And he really should have known better than to bring up her ex.

'It seems like she's always angry these days - especially since my dad moved out and left us all alone.'(5) Well, Jimmy had certainly hit the nail on the head there. 'She must really love that guy to be so down about him.' Jet remembered thinking, after Jimmy had said that to him, that a guy would have to be a real creep to run out on a good kid like Jimmy.

He also remembered thinking that maybe, maybe, a guy could be forgiven because it couldn't be easy to put up with someone like Cathy for long. Now, having seen her in action (and doing something besides ranting), it was hard to imagine the sort of guy who'd want to leave her - especially considering how much she cared about him.

Daniel had to be nuts. Jimmy was a good kid and Cathy was a good woman - Jet couldn't understand what he'd want to throw his family away for. It just didn't make sense. Well, whatever the guy's reasons, he had to be a world class creep and, if Jet ever met the man, he'd be sure to give that bastard a piece of his mind.

And a sizable portion of his fist.

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1) I can't remember the name of the show I got this from, but it was an actual song that I actually saw . . . I think, even if I was religious, it'd still be freaky.

2) In the subs of the Japanese version of 'At the End of the Battle," (which was the only one I saw until I bought the uncut DVD) instead of saying "I never even trusted my parents.", Jet said, "I don't even trust in God." - this is why I think of him having this sort of belief.

3) Because duck tape is good for anything :)

4) This comes from my understanding of 'Black Ghosts'

5) This is what Jimmy says to Jet in 'The Hero'


	13. A Little Visitor and a Larger One

(= Author's Note: Here, at long last, is Chapter 13. Maybe there is something to that old superstition about 13 being an unlucky number. All I know is that this chapter had a lot of false starts. Finally, though, I have got a chapter that I am mostly happy with - and I think that you'll be happy with it too.

But, before we get to that, I do have some "thank you"s to distribute.

Kris Ice, kikyou, Strata and GoldAngel2 - Thank you for the reviews!!

Kris Ice - As always, thanks for the suggestions.

GoldAngel2 - Thank you for beta reading this chapter for me.

Okay, now that that's finished, on to Chapter 13 - enjoy! =)

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As Jet sat there on the couch, hair slightly damp and smelling more like strawberries than he would have liked, he decided that Cathy had been right about one thing - he definitely did feel better now that he was clean. Well, as clean as he could get without being able reach the tap to get fresh water . . .

Anyway, it seemed that Cathy had regained her high spirits as well. At least, she was smiling as she put on her coat and grabbed her purse. "I'm off to the store. I'll be back soon. Anything you want before I go?"

He shook his head and watched her turn and leave, thinking that he'd been doing that a lot lately. Watching her leave. It wasn't like he could go with her, probably wouldn't have wanted to go if he could, but he thought that he could get tired of waiting. Get tired? He was tired of waiting already!

Never said I had any patience, he thought as he crossed his arms. Sometimes he wondered what it'd be like to have patience - but never for very long because he didn't have the . . . patience. He closed his eyes briefly and gritted his teeth. Great, now he was making stupid jokes - what next?

After flipping through the channels on the TV and thumbing through the Reader's Digest that Cathy had been using to keep the coffee table level, he discovered that there was no help there. He was bored out of his mind. Jet was used to that; he just wasn't used to not being able to get up and find another place to be bored in. Usually, he'd hit the street and see where his feet would lead him.

That was how he'd met Jimmy(1). He remembered the day well. He'd been wandering around the city, his feet taking him to more of the old places he used to know, when he saw these two kids in an alley. A big brown haired boy (maybe fifteen or so) had a smaller blonde haired one (had to be younger than ten) backed against the wall. Jet couldn't tell what was happening but he could tell that whatever it was wasn't good.

In the past, before Black Ghost, he would have walked passed. Not because he didn't care but because it wasn't his business - besides, he'd had enough to worry about then without trying to play hero. Not that he wouldn't have helped if asked . . . but that never happened back then(2).

That day, he strode into the alley, slipping back into the role of gang leader, with an ease that would trouble him later, he approached the pair. He came close to the brown haired kid and grabbed his shoulder in a way that probably looked comradely from a distance but was anything but when he noticed that the blonde kid's jacket was ripped. He told the kid that he should consider getting lost and that it might be a good idea never to bother the boy again. Things could happen.

The kid, who was smarter than he looked, quickly realized that he was out of his league and had run out of that alley as if he was afraid that Jet might do something more serious than give him a talking to. Lucky for that kid that it wasn't the old days.

Jet had watched the kid go, perhaps feeling more satisfaction than he should for intimidating a fifteen-year-old. He'd been about to leave himself when he heard the other boy speak. "What's your name?"

He'd looked down at the boy and realized that he was the first person outside of the landlord who'd asked that question. He'd shrugged, seeing no reason not to tell the kid. "Jet. Who are you?"

"Jimmy." Then the kid did something that Jet hadn't expected at all. Without hesitation, the boy had wrapped his arms around Jet's waist. "Thank you, Jet!"

Something about that had really touched him. Maybe the fact that the kid had trusted him enough to put himself in the danger zone already. Or maybe the gratitude in the gesture - he'd done some heroic things since becoming a cyborg but he wasn't often thanked for it. Maybe it was just that soft spot for children he usually tried to hide poking through.

Either way, he'd decided right then that he'd keep an eye on this kid. At the very least, it'd give him something to do every day besides watch talk shows. So, he'd offered to walk Jimmy home and the kid had brought him to a little place called the Sweet Pot. That was when he'd met Cathy for the first time. That had been a less pleasant experience.

At the time, he couldn't understand why the woman had taken such an instant dislike to him. He didn't know what that other boy had intended to do with Jimmy, but it was very possible that he'd saved the kid's life. Of course, she hadn't really given him the chance to explain anything; once she'd seen the rip in Jimmy's jacket, she'd only been interested in laying blame.

Jet hadn't stuck around for much of that. He didn't like getting lectured when he'd done something wrong; he certainly wasn't going to stand for it when he'd done something right! So he'd left, thinking that maybe he should give both that woman and her son wide berth from now on. Of course, the next day he'd seen Jimmy again and hadn't had the heart to brush him off.

A knocking at the door shook him from his reminiscences and he had a moment to wonder who it could be as he twisted around (carefully so as not to jar his leg) before the door opened. From his position, he could see very little of whomever it was, but he didn't have long to wait. A woman walked in and came close enough to the couch for Jet to see her clearly before she stopped, as if just noticing he was there.

She looked vaguely familiar but it only took Jet a couple of seconds to remember where he'd seen her before. She'd been there back at the hotel; she'd known where Cathy was. Now that she wasn't sooty or wild-eyed or frightened, she looked a bit different. More in control.

"Who are you?" She sounded suspicious and he couldn't blame her. If he found a stranger in his friend's apartment, he'd want to know what was up too. Probably worse to find a strange man in a woman's apartment though - he didn't even want to know what this woman thought of him at that moment.

Before he could answer, a blonde blur made its way to him. "Jet!" Before Jet could stop him (or at least tell him to be careful), Jimmy gave him a hug. Jet bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from cursing as the motion knocked his leg off the table. He forced a smile as he gave Jimmy's back an awkward pat. "Hi, kid."

Jimmy looked up at him, confused. "But what are you doing here?"

The woman spoke up, still sounding suspicious, "That's what I would like to know." She came closer, looking like she'd like to snatch Jimmy away from him. "And where is Cathy?"

"She's at the store," he answered, trying not to take her suspicion personally, "and she's letting me crash here for a few days."

She narrowed her eyes, obviously finding this last hard to believe. She glanced down at Jimmy who still hadn't moved and she seemed to come to a decision. "Jimmy, I know that you're tired, dear. Why don't you go to bed?"

Jimmy shook his head. "I want to see Mom."

"We'll wake you up when she comes home; you look beat, kid." And it was true; Jimmy looked on the verge of falling asleep anyway. "I'm sure your bed's more comfortable than my lap."

Jimmy frowned, "But -"

Jet smiled as he cut off his protest. "Besides, your Mom wouldn't be too happy with me if she came home and you looked like this."

That did it. Jimmy still didn't look happy but he nodded. "Okay." He moved away from Jet and yawned. "Goodnight, Jet. Goodnight, Auntie."

"Goodnight, dear." The woman's tone softened as he left the room. "Poor dear was up all night." She shook her head and turned her attention to Jet. "So you're Jet," She looked him over in a plainly disapproving fashion. "I thought Cathy didn't like you."

It wasn't a question and Jet wondered what Cathy had told this woman. But, first things first, if he was going to be getting dirty looks, he thought the least he was owed was the woman's name. "Who are you?"

"You can call me Mrs. Malley," she said haughtily. "And I would like to know what you're doing here, really."

Jet felt his temper begin to rise. He never liked being called a liar, especially not by people who'd just met him. Still, this was Cathy's friend and, while his patience was limited, he'd at least try to stay civil. "Cathy's letting me stay for a while."

Mrs. Malley cocked her head to the side and her frown deepened. Before he realized what she was up to, she grabbed his hair and dropped it like the strands had bit her. "Your hair is wet?"

"That's what happens when you take a bath," he said, letting his irritation show.

She brought her hand to her mouth, looking like she might be sick. "Oh God, Cathy," she breathed, "no wonder she wanted me to keep Jimmy! But why would she - I thought she hated you!"

Doing his best to ignore the twinge that her pronouncement had caused, he felt his brow crinkle in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

She ignored him, looking away. "Why? She's still young and she's pretty; she could do so much better!" Mrs. Malley's voice grew softer and she seemed to be thinking out loud. "Is she trying to throw her life away - didn't she learn anything from the last time?"

Frowning, Jet repeated his question.

This time, she glared as she looked back to him, "Like you don't know!" Her eyes blazed and anger filled her face as the hand fell away from her mouth. "How dare you take advantage of that poor girl!"

"Take advant-" Jet stopped himself as he realized what she was getting at. His temper flared and he wasn't sure when he spoke whether he was more angry that this woman thought he'd do something like that or that she thought that Cathy would let someone do that to her.

And Cathy's friend or not, he saw no reason for him to sit idly by and let her accuse him of things. "Look, lady, I don't have to answer to you and whatever Cathy does is her own business!"

Mrs. Malley was sputtering and he continued before she had a chance to speak, "But, if you have to know, nothing happened. I hurt myself back at the hotel and she's putting me up for a while. That's all." He spoke tersely, not afraid to let her know that his patience had run out.

"Really?" She sounded unconvinced but Jet didn't care. He was done playing around with this woman.

"Really," he said as he crossed his arms.

She glared at him and he glared back. While there were no weapons involved, it was clearly a stand off. He smiled a nasty mental smile. Go ahead, try me - I can take whatever you dish out, lady.

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It was a fairly equal contest and they might have stood (and sat respectively) there all day, just glaring at each other, if Cathy hadn't chosen that moment to come home.  
  
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(1) Everything about this meeting came out of my own head.

(2) As mentioned in "The Awakening"


	14. Shopping and Meddiling Neighbors

(Author's Note: Here I go again . . . Chapter 14! I hope that you all are enjoying yourselves. I came to a scary realization today: We are seven chapters into Saturday and the day is only about halfway over. Yeah, I'm a little scared.

But enough about me and my irrational fears!! I have people to thank! Thanks go to MM, Anya Urameshi, Strata, Kris Ice and GoldAngel2 for reviewing chapter 13 and some extra Thanks go to GoldAngel2 for beta reading this for me. THANKS!

Also, GoldAngel2, I added a lot of stuff since last you saw it, so I hope you like the additions.

Since there's nothing I need to say about this chapter (other than it's a little shorter than usual), I figure it's about time we get to it. Enjoy! )

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Cathy stood at the grocery store check out and wondered if it had taken the woman in front of her as long to cut out all those coupons as it did for her to use them. Not that she saw anything wrong with using coupons - she used them herself - but would it have killed this woman to take the ones she was using out where she could get to them quickly? From the look of irritation on the clerk's face, he agreed with her.

Sighing, she looked over the items in her cart for the nth time and wondered, once again, if she'd gotten everything that she needed. Usually, she made up a list before she left the apartment and it wasn't an issue. Today, however, she'd been in too much of a rush to leave the apartment to even think of writing a list. That was completely Jet's doing. He had touched upon a very sore subject for her and it had taken all that she had not to snap at him about it. It had helped that she'd known that she had no right to get mad at him for asking about a private matter - especially not after she'd done the same exact thing.

But, even though she couldn't damn him for being curious, it still hadn't been easy for her to pretend that she'd completely gotten over his asking by the time he was ready to come out of the tub. She wondered if he noticed that she was only pretending before deciding that he probably hadn't - he was a man after all.

Of course, the worst part was when she'd realized that she'd offered to tell Jet about Daniel. She knew that she'd only said it as an excuse to end the conversation before she broke down in the bathroom but she wasn't about to tell Jet that she hadn't meant it. Cathy only hoped that he'd decide that he didn't really want to know after all.

She sighed again and the clerk spared her a sympathetic look, mistaking its cause. After smiling a quick smile in his direction, she let the frown fall back into place as she thought it. No. While she didn't know why Jet was so interested in hearing about Daniel, she did know that he was interested in knowing and that it wasn't likely that he'd let her off the hook. Especially since she practically promised to tell him in the first place.

Cathy pulled a **People** magazine off the rack in an effort to distract herself from this line of thought. Why get herself all upset when there was nothing she could do about it? She glanced through the pages at the underfed and overdressed models grimacing as they made the path down the runways and wondered if maybe, if maybe she'd looked more like they did -

She shoved the magazine back into the rack with more force than strictly necessary and swallowed hard. Why was she still doing this? It'd been two weeks now, more!, and she was still doing this! If it wasn't 'if maybe's about how she acted or 'if maybe's about what she'd said that night, it was 'if maybe's about how she looked!

This had to stop. She had to stop letting herself get so worked up about Daniel! The only way she could have made Daniel stay was if she'd continued to let herself be a doormat and she knew it. She knew it but there was a part of her that refused to believe it. That traitorous part of her that brought up all those 'if maybe's. That foolish part of her that wouldn't let her forget, even for a moment, that, whatever his faults, she had loved him. Still loved him.

Her eyes ached and she closed them, willing herself to stay calm. This wasn't the sort of place she wanted to make a scene in. She could do this when she got home -

- except that she couldn't because Jet was there. Maybe it wouldn't the first time he'd seen her cry, but that wasn't the point. She hated the thought of being so . . . weak. And it didn't help that she knew, compared to what Jet had been through, her pain was nothing.

That was one of the reasons that she wasn't looking forward to honoring the offer she'd given Jet about Daniel. She could barely think about Daniel without wanting to cry; talking about him was sure to be a nightmare. She was afraid that he'd think that she was just being a baby - heck, most of the time, that's what she thought too . . .

No! Cathy shut her eyes tighter as tears threatened to form behind her eyes. That's it, time to think about something else - anything else! Jimmy! Jimmy would home soon, right? She risked looking at her watch. Damn! Almost noon already. By the time she got out of here, he'd be home.

Damn. She'd really wanted to be home when he got there; not only to see Jimmy and let him know that she was okay, but, well, she was sure Maria would be less than friendly with Jet if he was there by himself. Poor Jet was going to be getting quite the tongue lashing if she couldn't get home first!

Cathy's lips quirked up of their own accord. Jet was a super cyborg; he was capable of handling the tirades of an old woman. Her smile dropped a bit as she recalled exactly what she'd said to Maria about Jet. She only hoped that Maria wouldn't say anything too hurtful before she got there.

Cathy still wasn't sure what she'd tell Maria; while, strictly speaking, it was none of her business, Maria was sure to demand an explanation for why Jet was in her apartment and Cathy had found out years ago that it was better to just give in to those demands when Maria was concerned.

The main reason being that, if Cathy didn't tell her anything, Maria was sure to come to her own conclusions and that woman was nothing if not . . . inventive. Whatever she would come up with was sure to be at least unflattering (for both Cathy and Jet) and she would be sure to tell it to anyone who would listen. It wasn't that Maria was malicious, she just couldn't bear to keep juicy news to herself.

But then again, for some reason that Cathy couldn't figure out, Maria had taken it upon herself to try and be Cathy's buddy; maybe that would be enough to make her keep her mouth shut. Cathy considered it for a few moments before deciding that it was just wishful thinking. And it probably wouldn't come to that anyway because there was a perfectly innocent reason for Jet to be in her apartment made all the better for it being true.

Now, whether or not Maria would believe it . . . that was the real question.

She looked ahead in line and saw that the woman still hadn't found the coupon she'd been looking for. Judging by the bulging coupon folder she was sifting though, it looked like she'd be there for quite a while longer.

Cathy bit back a sigh and, as she looked down at her groceries for the nth time, wondered if she'd bought enough.

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About a half hour later, Cathy stood in front of her apartment door. She thought that she'd heard someone yelling. She stood there a moment longer, listening. When she heard nothing else, she shrugged to herself. Maybe it was the TV. That made sense. Still, it was not without some trepidation that Cathy opened the door (which, considering the fact that she was busy juggling three bags of groceries in her arms when she did it, was a lot trickier than it sounded). As she stepped inside, she noticed two things immediately. One: Maria was already here and Two: Maria was not happy.

Maria was standing in front of the couch glaring at Jet as if he was being an affront to all things decent by merely being alive and, while Cathy couldn't see Jet from where she stood, she was almost positive that he probably was giving Maria a similar look. She didn't know what had happened to cause this but she did know that this was not good. Not good at all.

She had to put a stop to this. After thinking for a few moments about what she could say that wouldn't make this situation any more awkward and realizing that there was nothing she could say that would be able to make that happen, Cathy kicked the door shut behind her, hoping the sound would shake them out of this glaring contest that they'd gotten themselves into.

Maria looked up, startled at the sudden noise. Once she realized what it was, she relaxed and her expression became a strange mixture of annoyed and concerned. "Cathy! There you are." She came around the couch, her voice steadily gaining in volume as she spoke. "What do you think you're doing?" Maria snatched the bags out of Cathy's arms. "You were in the hospital last night - you should be taking it easy! I could have helped you with this, you know."

"I - uh, I didn't want to bother you." Honestly, the thought hadn't crossed her mind; even if it had, she probably wouldn't have contacted Maria anyway. If there was one thing that Cathy hated it was charity; she felt more comfortable taking care of herself. You never owed anyone anything that way.

Maria smiled and her voice softened, "It wouldn't have been a bother." Then she started towards the kitchen before turning back, looking almost hurt, "Can I speak to you for a minute, alone."

Feeling a little guilty and not really sure why, Cathy nodded. "I'll be with you in a second." First she wanted to check on Jet and find out where Jimmy was - if Maria was here, so was Jimmy.

Maria's eyes narrowed but she seemed to accept this. "All right, dear, I'll be waiting."

Cathy watched her shut the kitchen door behind her, wondering what it was that she wanted to talk about. Maybe Jet would know. And maybe he'd know where Jimmy was too.

She walked around to the front of the couch and immediately saw that Jet was not following her instructions. "Jet! You're supposed to keep that leg up." Putting the leg back into its former position, she looked up and saw that he was giving her that smirk of his. "What's so funny?"

He shook his head, "Nothing, just glad you're here." He sounded like he meant it and, considering the scene she'd walked in on, she couldn't blame him for that.

"What happened?" At his blank look, she clarified. "With Maria?"

Jet crossed his arms, not looking her in the face when he spoke. "I don't know." He seemed tense and uncomfortable and, though it was hard to tell with his face mostly covered by his hair, he looked a little embarrassed as well.

She wondered what had him so nervous. Cathy considered dragging the truth out of him before deciding that it wasn't worth the trouble when whatever had Jet so nervous was sure to be the same thing that Maria wanted to talk to her about anyway. Great, now she had another reason not to look forward to this conversation she was going to have with Maria. But before she was going to worry about that, there was something that she needed to know. "Where's Jimmy?"

He looked up at her, smiling and obviously more comfortable with this topic. "Oh, Jimmy, he's sleeping." Uncrossing his arms, he leaned forward, as if he was sharing a big secret. "I guess he stayed up late last night, worrying about you."

Cathy felt equal parts guilty and touched. "Okay." Jimmy really was a good little boy, wasn't he? All mothers thought that their children were good, but Cathy knew that her boy was really going to be someone special someday. He was really going to be something. At the moment though, he was sleeping and now that she knew where he was and she'd made sure that Jet was all right, there was no more putting it off.

"Okay," she said as she strengthened her resolve, "I'll be back." She started walking to the kitchen and couldn't help wondering, as she came up to the door, why she felt like she was walking to her own execution.

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(End Note: Well, not a note, per se, but a question. Do you guys think I should give these chapters fanciful names or just keep them the way they are? )

(Author Rant: Damn! Now won't let me do the periods that I was using to separate the Author's note from the main body of text. First the shift -8 stars and now this! When will it end?????)


	15. Confrontations Can be Painful

(!Author's note: Howdy ya'll an' welcome to the first chapter of the New Year! I'm sure you all are just as excited as I am.

Before we get into some specifics on this chapter, let's get down to business. First and foremost, Thank you, GoldAngel2 for beta reading and reviewing my last chapter (I have to warn you, the ending has some stuff added - I re-read it and found that you were right. I hope you like the additions!). Secondly, I must thank my reviewers who have made this process very rewarding. So: Thank you, Anya Urameshi; Thank you, Strata; and Thank you, Crazyfairy! Thirdly ...

Nope, no thirdly this time. And nothing to discuss either - looks like you guys get off easy today ;)

So, here's Chapter 15 .... Enjoy! !)

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Cathy walked into the kitchen and found Maria sitting at the table. She seemed almost ... pensive. It wasn't an expression she usually saw on Maria's face and it did nothing to put her at ease. Whatever it was that Maria wanted to talk about, it had to be serious.

Maria asked her, very politely, to sit but Cathy declined. She was not interested in reenacting a police drama type interrogation in her own kitchen. Even though, after the trip to the grocery store, that other chair did look good.

After a long moment of tense silence, Maria spoke. "Why is he here?"

There was no need to ask who 'he' was. Cathy sighed. Well, it wasn't as if she hadn't expected this question. "Remember when I stayed in the hotel? Well, if it wasn't for Jet coming in after me I would have died." Maria's expression remained stony "He saved my life, Maria."

Anger flitted across Maria's face so quickly that Cathy wasn't actually sure she'd seen it. Then she stared at Cathy with sad eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Cathy found herself crossing her arms, feeling like a disobedient teenager instead of a grown woman. She hated when Maria did this. "I didn't think you'd care."

"You didn't think I'd care?" Maria actually sounded hurt. "Why wouldn't I care? I'm your friend, dear."

"Please don't call me that," Cathy said, trying not to snap at her when all she was trying to do was be friendly, "you know I don't like it."

"I know," Maria at least had the grace to look apologetic, "I just can't help it sometimes." Before Cathy could change the subject, Maria changed it for her. "Why him, Cathy?"

What a strange question! "How should I know? You should ask him - he's the one who came and saved me!"

The older woman's expression softened for a second before her eyes narrowed. "That still doesn't make it right."

"What?"

Maria seemed pained. "I know you're an adult and I know you've been having a rough time lately but I have to tell you, as a friend, that I think you're making a terrible mistake." She paused as though unsure she should say what she wanted to. "At the very least, it isn't fair to your son."

For a long moment, Cathy could only stare. She tried to figure out what Jimmy had to do with Jet rescuing her back at the hotel and failed. Maria had officially lost her. "What does Jimmy have to do with it?"

Maria frowned. "I'm sure that it was just some harmless fun to you, but I doubt Jimmy's going to understand the difference!"

Cathy had the feeling that she should know what Maria was getting at. She also had the feeling that she probably didn't want to know what Maria was getting at. Unfortunately, she was tired, emotionally and physically, and all she really wanted at that moment was to put the groceries away so she could sit down for a while. Unfortunately, in order to do that, she had to find out what was going on with Maria, fix it, and send the woman on her way.

"What are you talking about?"

The older woman stood. "I'm talking about that young man in the living room!" She walked around the table, her voice became louder and more angry with every word she spoke. "Do you think I'm stupid? Did you think I wouldn't notice? For God's sake Cathy, just because he saved your life doesn't mean you owe him sex! And, if that wasn't the reason, why? Of all people, why did you pick some teenaged delinquent to knock boots with!"

Now she stood in front of Cathy, obviously not taking note of Cathy's clenching fists. "Goodness knows you've got rotten taste in men - I mean, how you ended up with a scumbag like Daniel just boggles the mind -, but -"

There was a loud crack and Maria abruptly stopped talking. She stepped back, a look of shock and a hint of fear on her face. Cathy's hand stung but it wasn't until Maria's own hand had strayed to her already reddening cheek that Cathy realized what she'd done. And, in that moment, she found that she didn't care.

"How dare you?" She spoke softly, but felt herself start to shake with rage.

Maria, hand covering her cheek, didn't even try to answer.

It was just as well, because Cathy was almost certain that anything Maria said would just make her angrier. "You don't even know Jet and you don't even know me if you think I could sleep with someone I didn't love.

"And, I'm not sure what exactly you 'noticed' but if you had actually looked, you would have seen the damn towel around his leg! I don't know what you'd do, but I couldn't let him stay on his own after he hurt himself rescuing me. Fine way to pay him back after he carried me out of that place with a broken leg!"

Cathy felt her composure slide away as she recalled what had set her off in the first place. "And I can't believe you; you say you're my friend, but you just had to bring up Daniel, didn't you? You just couldn't help yourself! Some friend you are." Her eyes started to ache with unshed tears. "I don't need you to remind me of my mistakes, I can do that on my own."

What was left of her rage fled and sadness rushed in. All of her control had left her and she felt like she had on that first night when Daniel had gone. She brought her hands up to her face, not caring that she had an audience, and began to sob.

Suddenly, she felt herself being enveloped in warmth. A distant part of her mind told her that Maria was hugging her and that she should still be mad but Cathy didn't care who it was. She sank into it and she stayed in that embrace for, she didn't even know how long.

Eventually, she felt herself calm and with calm came embarrassment. She backed out of the hug and Maria let her. She dabbed at her eyes, not knowing what to say. Then she swallowed hard, remembering that she'd just slapped this woman. And that she'd stayed. And that she'd helped her. "I'm sorry."

Maria smiled slightly and shook her head. "No, dear, I'm the one who's sorry."

Cathy stared, unable to believe her ears. Maria was apologizing to her? Maria never apologized for anything!

"You were right," Maria said, her voice gentle and her expression contrite, "I shouldn't have been so hasty and I shouldn't have spoken to you that way." Her hand, which had stayed on Cathy's shoulder, fell to Maria's side. "I just jumped to conclusions and my concern got in the way of my common sense is all." She smiled with sudden good humor, "I guess I had it coming."

Despite her tears, Cathy smiled too. "I'm sorry I hit you."

"And I'm sorry I was an ass." Maria's smile faded. "Are you all right, now?"

Cathy nodded, finding, to her surprise, that she actually was.

"Good." Maria briefly clasped Cathy's shoulder again."Well, I won't keep you."

As she started to go, Cathy felt as if she should be saying something, anything! But, in the end, the only words she could force out were: "Thank you for looking after Jimmy."

"No problem," Maria said with a dismissive wave, "he's always such a little angel." She had started to walk by Cathy but stopped. "I just want you to know, whatever your decision, that I won't stand in your way."

Cathy nodded wordlessly.

Maria grinned and walked out of the kitchen, shutting the door behind her and leaving Cathy alone with her groceries. Cathy chuckled a bit, feeling better than she had in days. And, after cleaning her face, she started putting her groceries away.

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Jet, for his part, was at least partially aware of what was happening in the kitchen. It wasn't that he was trying to eavesdrop, it was just that, between the thin walls and the raised voices, he couldn't miss it. He'd turned up the TV but it hadn't done much good - he could still hear them.

And then it stopped. Completely. He turned down the TV and listened. And worried. Yelling, he could deal with. But yelling and then silence ... Well, it was worrying. And it was probably not a good sign.

He wanted to find out what was happening but was stuck where he was and he had the feeling that if he yelled for Cathy, it'd only make whatever was wrong worse. So, he sat there, staring at the kitchen door, and waited for something to happen.

As he waited, his thoughts started to drift. From what Jimmy had told him, during those times when the kid actually talked about his home life, Cathy didn't have many friends. It made sense - with her two jobs, when would she have the time? Then he'd only cared about it in that it affected Jimmy, now ....

Mrs. Malley, as much as he didn't like her, was Cathy's friend. He didn't like the thought that Cathy could lose her because of him. They had been talking about him; he'd heard Mrs. Malley yell something about a teenaged delinquent and he'd heard Cathy shout his name. Obviously, Cathy hadn't appreciated the woman's imagination any more than he had.

Jet turned away from the kitchen and leaned back into the cushions. What good did it do to worry? Whatever was happening would happen and he'd have no say in it. And staring at the kitchen door wouldn't tell him anything he didn't already know. It'd be best if he just took his mind off it.

He turned the TV back on and tried to convince himself that he was watching Julia Child(1) cook a roast something or other instead of worrying about what was happening in the kitchen. It wasn't really working and he'd been about to change the channel when he heard the kitchen door open.

He twisted towards the kitchen and found Mrs. Malley walking out the door. She seemed tired and she sighed as she turned and shut the door. Then she noticed that he was watching her. She didn't say anything at first and her face had twisted into an expression that he couldn't identify.

A minute passed before the expression faded and she spoke. "Jet, I'd like to speak with you."

'Tell someone who cares,' he thought. He almost said it too but figured that he might as well let her talk - the sooner she said what she wanted to say, the sooner she'd leave. Still, being twisted around as he was was uncomfortable and he wasn't about to put himself through any discomfort for her sake. He leaned back and laced his hands behind his head. "What?"

There was a short pause. "I think I owe you an apology."

Jet blinked and turned his head so that he could see her. "An apology?"

She nodded. "I don't know you from Adam, but I thought I knew enough to come to some conclusions that I'm not proud of."

He looked forward and chuckled without humor. "That's an understatement. You figure that out on your own, did you?"

"Actually no," she admitted, "Cathy put me straight."

"Did she?" he said flatly, signaling that anytime she wanted to get to the apology and end this conversation would not be soon enough for him. Actually, he didn't care if he got an apology or not; he just wanted her to go.

"Yes, thanks to her, I know better now - I won't be making that mistake again."

There was a long pause. Despite himself, he turned back to look at her. She seemed to be waiting for something. It took him a minute to realize that this was as much an apology as he was going to get. Jet was not the most forgiving person he knew, and he still wasn't very fond of this woman (had she given him a reason to be?), but he figured that, this once, he'd be gracious. Besides, it was possible that, if he didn't accept her apology, that she might come by to try again!

"I'm sure you won't." Still flat but he couldn't help it - accepting her apology was one thing; being friendly was another.

Mrs. Malley smiled. "All right then." Her expression turned serious and Jet wondered if maybe he'd been too quick to accept that apology. "I just want you to know that I care about Cathy a great deal - I don't want to see her hurt; she's been hurt enough already. And I don't want to see her end up with another scum bag."

He opened his mouth to protest either the fact that she was alluding that he was a scum bag or the fact that there was no way that Cathy was going to 'end up' with him, but hadn't managed to settle on one or the other before Maria started speaking again.

"If you end up being the one she picks, I won't stand in the way." As Jet tried to wrap his mind around that scenario, Mrs. Malley walked towards him until they were close enough to touch. When she spoke, he voice was soft but full of feeling. "But you better take good care of her. And you better never make her cry."

For one of the few times in his life, Jet Link was speechless. He looked up at her and she stared back. What was she waiting for this time? Whatever it was, she was going to be disappointed because he wasn't sure if he'd be able to say anything if his life depended on it.

After a while she got tired of waiting. "Will you do that?"

He thought about it as best he could with his mind still racing and decided that, even though there was little chance that what Mrs. Malley had described would apply to him, he might as well say yes. Anyway, it looked like she wouldn't be leaving anytime soon if he didn't. Jet nodded.

"Good." She smiled. "Take care, Jet," she said as she started for the door. "Take care."

And Mrs. Malleywas gone.

Jet sat on the couch and Julia Child put her roast in the oven. As Julia extolled the virtues of preheating, Jet could only wonder what he was going to do now.

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1) Come on! Who doesn't know Julia Child? She's a pretty famous cook - like Martha Steward except, you know, without the pole up her a- hey, isn't that Elvis? Right there, behind you! Oh! Oh, you missed him. Never mind, he's gone now. Wow. ....What were we talking about again?

(!End note: You might have noticed the 'space's, that's because this Document thing won't let me use periods there or shift 8 stars or colons or undercores or anything. When will the indignities end! !)


	16. Thinking is Overrated

(: Author's note: Hello and welcome to Chapter 16: the second edition. I've done some reediting to what you've already read and I've added a long bit to the end of it. Fan fiction is something that evolves and this fic has just had it's first evolution post-posting. I'm leaving the old version of chapter 16 up for now, but I'll add a note to it about this being the actual chapter 16.

Not that you all really care about that . . . Let's skip to something I know you will.

Thank you GoldAngel2 for beta reading the new piece of this chapter and reviewing the old one.

Thank you Kris Ice; Strata; and jet777 for reviewing Chapter 16: the first edition.

Here's hoping you enjoy the additions :) :)

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If there was one thing that Jet absolutely despised, it was brooding. Brooding was probably one of the most useless things a person could waste their time doing. It served no purpose and it usually made whatever problem being brooded about worse. A simple thing could become a snarled, complicated mess with enough brooding.

Which was why he was absolutely furious with himself now. Ever since Mrs. Malley had left, he'd been going over their conversation and that promise that she'd extracted from him. Over and over again. In excruciating detail. Wondering about Mrs. Malley's reasons for even bringing the topic up at all.

And why? That was the most frustrating part: he had no idea why he was doing it. That Mrs. Malley was obviously insane, stupid or both - why was he giving her words any credence at all? If he was smart, he'd put the whole matter right out of his head and forget having had that conversation.

Unfortunately, his brain had latched on to that promise she'd extorted and would not let it go. It wasn't that he ever wanted to hurt Cathy but he hadn't been in the position to make that kind of promise in the first place. That was the sort of promise fathers made their daughters' dates agree to on TV. It didn't apply to him and he wasn't sure he ever wanted it to.

He liked Cathy: it seemed that he must seeing as he cared about her and trusted her or, at least, he thought so. Considering the fact that she'd only been civil with him for a little more than a day, at this point, any relationship he'd considered having with Cathy didn't extend beyond simple friendship.

And there was no guarantee that he had any hope of getting that much. Even if Cathy's kindness was fueled by more than just gratitude, he was leaving and would probably never see her again - what kind of friendship would that be?

But now, thanks to Mrs. Malley and her overactive imagination, he found himself considering a relationship with Cathy where her promise would apply. He didn't know as he'd want a serious relationship with her (or with anyone, really), but he found himself going over the pros and cons of the idea anyway.

There were a lot of cons.

First and foremost was, of course, the fact that he doubted Cathy would be interested. Yes, she was being very nice and very understanding but that didn't mean that she'd want more than friendship and it didn't even mean that she wanted that. He could only imagine what she'd do if she knew what he was thinking about. He couldn't imagine that she'd be very happy.

Even if she was, for sake of argument, there would still be problems. Cathy was part of a set - Jimmy would always be part of the bargain. Jet cared for the kid quite a bit but . . . to go from bachelorhood to fatherhood . . . The thought of that much responsibility, frankly, scared him.

As his comrades liked to point out to him from time to time, he was a bit of a hot head. He didn't have the patience or the skill or the anything to be a father. His own father hadn't been the best, but Jet knew from remembering him that there was more to being a father than telling stories every once and a while. There was a commitment.

A commitment he could not make.

His comrades were important - they were the only family that he had left. Whatever they asked of him, he would do all in his power to give. This mission he was going on when Doctor Gilmore fixed him was a perfect example: he had his own personal doubts about it but he'd refused to let that stop him from going where he was needed.

Thinking of that mission reminded Jet of the other reason why a relationship with Cathy would be a bad idea. Even with Black Ghost gone, there would no doubt be times when he would be needed. And any job that would need his help would be a dangerous one. How could he ask anyone to be a part of his life knowing that, one day, he could be killed?

Yes, a relationship with Cathy would be an all-around bad idea.

But that was just for sake of argument. As it stood, he'd be willing to bet that she wasn't interested and he knew that he wasn't. Not at all. Not even a little. At least, he didn't think he was -

Jet sighed and rubbed his eyes. Enough was enough. This wasn't getting him anywhere and it was high time he stopped brooding about it. Leaning back, he forced the whole subject to the back of his mind and tried to focus on what was on TV.

It turned out to be surprisingly easy to do as Julia had chosen that moment to take her roast out of the oven. This was the best part of any cooking show, the point where the chief took their creations off the heat and set up a plate. It was strange though, he'd never really appreciated people who could cook until he'd come back to New York and realized that he wasn't any good at it.

It had really made him wish that he'd paid more attention and had helped Chang when he'd had the chance. Maybe then he wouldn't have to watch cooking shows to remember what good food looked like. And it always looked so good ...

Why he tortured himself like this, he didn't know.

As absorbed as he was in watching Julia putting the final touches on her meal, he didn't notice Cathy was there until she sat down next to him. He felt his heart jump and wondered what the heck he was so nervous about. The woman had helped him bathe and he was getting nervous because she was sitting next to him?

Damn that Mrs. Malley and her stupid promise!

Cathy didn't appear to notice. "Is Jimmy awake yet?"

Jet shook his head, wishing his heart would settle back into his chest where it belonged.

"Oh," she said. She sounded disappointed.

Jet couldn't really understand why she should be disappointed but felt compelled to say something anyway. "He looked pretty beat. I wouldn't expect him to get up for a while yet."

She nodded and looked like she was about to say something else when she glanced at the TV. The glance turned into a look and she seemed entranced for a moment. "What are you watching?"

"Julia Child," Jet answered easily, letting go of his nervousness as shock blossomed on her face. It was a very funny look for her and he resisted the urge to laugh with difficulty. "She's a good one to watch but I like Chef Judy (1) better."

She stared at him as if he'd grown another head. "You watch cooking shows?"

He crossed his arms, amusement fading into annoyance. "Yeah, so?" He wanted to say 'Wanna make something of it,' but he figured that that would be a little immature. Not that he usually cared about such things . . .

"Well," Cathy began hesitantly before shrugging, "I just wouldn't have thought that you'd like them, that's all."  
Jet got the distinct feeling from her tone that he was being insulted somehow. "Why not?"

She held her hands up in surrender. "No reason, it's just -" Cutting herself off, she smiled. "Do you cook much?"

She was changing the subject and Jet decided to let her. He was not in the mood to get into an argument about this and if she didn't either, it suited him just fine. "Sometimes."

"Any good at it?"

Pride warred with honesty and it came down to a close tie. "It's not as easy as they make it look," he said slowly, trying to be honest but not wanting to lose face, "but I think I'm getting the hang of it." It wasn't really a lie: he might not be able to make fancy dinners but he was getting good at cooking things that came in boxes. Or bags. And water always came out well.

"I'm not the best cook there is, but, if you want, you could come down to dinner every once and a while." Cathy looked embarrassed and she quickly added, "I'm sure Jimmy would love to have you."

Jet was at once touched and melancholy. Touched that Cathy would think of inviting him (even if she did add that part about Jimmy to cover it up) and melancholy because he knew that he'd never be taking her up on that offer. "Why not," he forced out, trying to regain his composure, "I never say no to food."

She looked relieved. "I bet."

Silence stretched between them as the TV seemed to spark her interest and she began watching it intently. Jet tried to do the same but found that he couldn't. He was very aware of how close she was sitting and he thought that he smelled a hint of lavender. Probably the body wash - he'd seen it in the tub but hadn't used it because he'd thought that it was bad enough that his hair would smell like strawberries - he didn't need to smell like flowers too.

Jet shook his head. This was stupid. Why was he doing this to himself? Hungry for punishment? And didn't he already decide that he wasn't interested and that it wasn't a good idea even if he was?

Cathy's sigh drew his attention and he turned to face her. She looked tired and nervous but also determined as she looked back at him. "Jet, did you mean what you said before?"

He narrowed his eyes, trying to think of what she might be talking about, before giving up. "Depends on what I said." He smiled in an effort to break the tension her sudden question had caused.

It didn't work and her expression didn't change. "Back in the bathroom, when you asked about Daniel." She hesitated as if changing her mind before she pressed on. "Do you still want to know about it?"

"Yes" came out of his mouth before he could think of stopping it.

She seemed startled at the quick answer and she smiled weakly. "Is that your final answer?"(2)

"Huh?" Did she think he was jerking her around or something? "What do you mean?"

"Nothing," she sigh, waiving the question away. "It was just a joke."

From the way she'd said it, it probably wouldn't have been a gut buster even if he'd known what she was talking about. "Oh," he said, realizing she'd been waiting for a response. She shrugged a little and looked away from him.

As she visibly prepared herself for what was to come, Jet considered giving her an out. It was obvious that Daniel had hurt her a lot and that what she was going to talk about would be hard for her to say and hard for him to listen to. Jet knew his strengths and he knew that he was not always as sympathetic as he could be.

And, even when he was trying to be sympathetic, he usually said something that he should have kept to himself. Sometimes, he forgot that not everybody was as tough as he was. About the last thing he wanted to do was make Cathy mad at him again.

Or worse, make her cry.

"Cathy," he began.

She shook her head. "Please don't try to talk me out of it." Cathy smiled but it lacked life. "I might as well get this off my chest." Then she closed her eyes. "I just need to think of where to begin."

Rather than saying something flippant like "Well, I'm not going anywhere" or something trite like "Take as much time as you need," he drew upon his patience and waited for her to speak. Seeing as this was for his benefit, he figured he owed it to her not to make her rush. Luckily for him and his limited patience, he didn't have too long to wait.

Abruptly, she opened her eyes and asked a question that Jet had not been expecting. "Have you ever been in love?"

For a moment, Jet could only stare. What a question! He thought about it, recalling the crush he'd had on 003 when he'd first met her, but he decided that that probably wasn't what Cathy meant. He shook his head warily, wondering where she was going with this.

She smiled at him, looking sad. "Well, being in love isn't like the movies. Being in love is all about compromise. Give and take." Looking away from him, she focused her attention on her hands, clasped tightly in her lap. "And forgiveness."

She picked her head up and stared straight ahead, her eyes slightly unfocused as she remembered. "Daniel was not the best husband - he was lazy and stupid and he did a hundred things a day that annoyed me. He never helped me with the house work; he'd never pick Jimmy up from school and he hadn't earned money for years." Her laughter sounded bitter. "But, despite that, I loved him. And, I thought that he loved me.

"So, even when he annoyed me and when he made me angry, I forgave him because I loved him enough to take what he gave me in stride - or what he didn't give me." She looked at Jet, and gestured with her hand. "Do you know what it's like to forgive someone over and over and over again for the same thing?"

Forgiveness was not something that came easy to Jet. He was a full believer in an eye for an eye - if someone wronged him, they deserved to pay . . . Well, now that he was thinking about it, he suddenly realized how that wasn't quite true any more. If it was, he'd never have forgiven Doctor Gilmore for the part he'd played in his transformation into a cyborg.

Not that it hadn't him taken a long time. And that was with the man proving time and time again that he regretted what he'd done and that he actually cared about what happened to them. But that was a much different situation than what Cathy had described. If it had been him in that situation, he would have dropped this Daniel character like a bad habit.

However, Jet sensed that she would not appreciate him saying so and since he really had no desire to make this any harder for her, he just shook his head and said: "Can't say that I do."

"Well, it's exhausting!" She exclaimed, waiving her hand. Cathy seemed more animated now but Jet wasn't sure whether or not this was a good thing. "You spend so much energy hoping that this will be the last time, that he's going to make a fresh start and it's so hard to keep your cool when he dashes your hopes for the millionth time and you don't know who to be more angry at: him for not changing or yourself for getting your hopes up!"

As she'd been speaking her voice had become angrier and her face had flushed with color but then she abruptly slumped and sighed, her voice almost a whisper. "But the worst part is when you do all this forgiving and he never once says that he's actually sorry."

There was a long pause and Jet wanted to say something but he didn't know what. Cathy looked like she could use some comfort but he didn't know what to do. He wasn't good at this: he wasn't one of those people who could tell pleasing lies or find silver linings. And he wasn't very good at emotional scenes either.

But, if there was one thing that he was good at, it was following his instincts. He put his hand on Cathy's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

The smile she gave him when she looked up was the first genuine smile he'd seen since this conversation had started. But, before long, the smile faded. "It went on like that for years and, a little over two weeks ago, I had finally had enough. I had spent the last eight years forgiving that man and I was tired of it."

"So, I gave him an ultimatum: either he had to change or he had to go." She quirked up her lips, as though she was trying to smile. "As you can see, Daniel isn't here."

As the tears rolled down her cheeks and she buried her face into her hands, Jet could tell that his original assessment of this Daniel person had been right on the money: a real, world class creep. Broken leg or not, if he was here right now, Jet would punch him. More than once. It sounded like Cathy had been nothing but good to this lowlife and that jerk just cut out on her and Jimmy.

Watching her sob, Jet felt his anger grow. How could someone treat anyone this way? Where did that guy get off doing this to her? And why, why was she letting him make her cry like this? At length, he could take no more. "Stop it!" Not thinking about what he was doing, he grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. "Don't waste your tears on him - he doesn't deserve it!"

Cathy stared at him blankly for a moment, looking as shocked by his action as he felt. Then she put her hand over his and smiled a watery smile. "I know."

Jet didn't know how long they had stayed like that. Just staring at each other. It was like his mind had been shut off: he couldn't think of moving or looking away. He'd heard a song lyric a long time ago about being lost in someone's eyes and he'd never understood what it had meant. He thought he might now.

He felt like he could stay that way forever.

"Mommy!"

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(1) This refers to a cooking show mentioned in a double drabble I wrote called "A Chef Grows in Brooklyn." It's so much fun citing my own stuff :)

(2) This refers to that show "Who Wants to be a Millionare?" that had what's his name on it.


	17. Cathy Denies and Jet Entertains

Author's note: Here we are and here is Chapter 17. The real Chapter 17. Not Chapter 16 again.

Thank you's go to WolfDaughter, Strata, jet777 and GoldAngel2 for reviewing Chapter 16, the revised edition. A big THANK YOU goes to GoldAngel2 for betaing this chapter.

I think that's about it. Please enjoy Chapter 17!

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Cathy was aware of his hand still holding her chin and her own hand covering his and she could feel that their knees were touching but the only thing that seemed real were his eyes. Jet's eyes were beautiful: she had never seen that color before. A mixture of browns and reds. She felt like she was floating, drifting in a sea of fire.

It wasn't like her to be so . . . poetic and she might have laughed at the strangeness of it if it hadn't been so apt. She felt like she could remain adrift for a long while and not care. She felt so warm. Leaning in. She felt safe. Leaning closer. She felt -

"Mommy!"

Jimmy's voice shattered the moment like a baseball through a window pane. Cathy jerked out of her stupor and realized just how close she'd been to Jet. How close she had come to doing something that she couldn't take back. For a crazy moment, she almost felt disappointed.

But she didn't have long to question this feeling as Jimmy rushed to her and climbed up into her lap. "Mommy, I was so scared."

Cathy wrapped her arms around her son and pulled him close, realizing, as she did so, that he was crying. Remembering how close she'd come to never holding him again, she felt a little like crying herself. "Shush, it's okay, baby. I'm okay."

Running her hand through his hair, she continued to mumble comforts into his ear until Jimmy pulled away. His cheeks were wet with tears but his face was red with embarrassment now that his need for comfort was overwhelmed by the need to be grown up and cool.

When he noticed that Jet was sitting on the couch, he hurriedly wiped what was left of his tears away. "Jet's still here?"

She smiled at the cautious hope in Jimmy's voice. With all that she'd said about Jet in the last couple of weeks, she wasn't surprised that he was finding it hard to believe. "Yep. And he'll be staying here for the next couple of days."

Then she leaned her head closer to him, to spare Jet some embarrassment, and said softly, "Jet hurt his leg so you'll have to help me take care of him when I'm not here, okay?"

Jimmy beamed, nodding furiously - whether because his idol was staying with them or because he was being intrusted with the responsibility of care giver, Cathy didn't know. She also found that she didn't care: it seemed like such a long time since she'd seen her son smile this.

Had it really been so long since Jimmy had been genuinely happy?

"How did you get hurt, Jet?" Jimmy's expression had become concerned and his smile had disappeared.

"Uh, well," Jet wasn't blushing but it seemed like a close thing, "I was just a little clumsy last night, that's all."

Jet? Being modest? Cathy wondered when the other signs of the Apocalypse would appear. Even though she generally couldn't stand it when people stroked their own egos, considering the fact that Jet had saved her life at the risk of his own, she figured that he was entitled to brag a little.

"Don't be so modest, Jet!" she exclaimed, swatting Jet's shoulder. "I'm sure Jimmy would love to hear how you came to my rescue."

Jet looked at her and frowned, plainly uncomfortable. "It wasn't that big a deal."

Cathy had been about to protest when she realized what the problem might be. It couldn't be that he didn't want Jimmy to know that he was 002 - as far as she could see, the story could be easily changed. No. If she had to guess, she'd say that Jet, cyborg 002, was afraid. Afraid that maybe Jimmy would not be as impressed by a story about Jet doing something that a human could do.

Which was silly.

Before she had a chance to say so, Jimmy spoke up for her. "Wow, you saved my mom?"

Cathy slid Jimmy off her lap so he could sit next to Jet. "He sure did - I bet he'll tell you all about it, if you ask."

For once, the shining hero worship in her son's eyes didn't make her feel like she was losing the war for Jimmy's future. "Really?" Then he turned to Jet. "Pleeeease."

As she watched Jet's expression soften, she decided that she should probably give the boys some privacy. Besides, remembering what had almost happened before Jimmy had interrupted, well, she had some things to think about. And the sooner she did, the better off she would be.

Now that Jet was starting his story, she took the opportunity to slip away. Jimmy didn't seem to notice at all. Jet did and gave her a questioning look. When she pantomimed eating, he smiled and got back to what he was saying. Men . . . the quickest way to make them forget about anything was bringing up food.

After she closed the kitchen door behind her, she went straight to the cupboards. She was starving and she didn't think an early dinner would do any of them harm considering the kind of day they'd had.

Unfortunately, like she had this morning when she was choosing something to wear, she was having a hard time deciding what to cook. In terms of what she felt like doing, she thought that she'd be able to manage throwing some frozen pizza in the oven.

But she had company. That meant cooking something nicer.

Cathy shook her head. No, now she wasn't being honest. If Maria had been coming over, she wouldn't be worrying about what she was going to cook. If she was going to be honest, the reason she was having a hard time deciding was because she wanted to . . .

To impress Jet.

She sat down at the table and allowed herself a sigh. She was in trouble, wasn't she? Or, if she wasn't yet, she would be if she wasn't more careful. If Jimmy hadn't interrupted when he had, she knew she would have kissed Jet - she was afraid to guess what would have happened then.

Would he have been surprised? Startled? Repulsed? Would he have pulled away from her? Would he have let her explain - could she have explained if he had? Or would he have kissed her back? Would he have welcomed it?

There were so many questions, but one thing she knew for sure: the last thing she needed was to have her heart broken again.

That was it. There was really nothing more to think about. Her feelings were too jumbled for her to understand what she was feeling - what if, in the event that Jet had accepted her advance, she was only rebounding, picking up the next available man to fill the void in her heart? That would not be fair to either of them.

It was clear to Cathy that no one would be happy if she acted on what she was feeling. Since that was the case, it seemed the smartest and least selfish thing to do would for her to stop being foolish and forget these feelings of hers. That way, everyone could be happy.

Except you.

She brushed the thought away. A little personal unhappiness seemed a small price to pay when she considered how likely it was that attaching herself to someone new right now would only cause her more pain in the long run.

It was settled. She'd mind her own business and keep her feelings to herself. She was used to keeping her feelings locked up. It should be easy.

Still, as Cathy finally settled on some canned stew, she wondered if it really would be that simple.

(Time moving forward)

Once dinner was finished cooking, Cathy opened the door with the intention of letting Jet and Jimmy know that it was time to eat. Seeing that Jet was still speaking, she lingered in the doorway and listened. It sounded like he was nearing the end of his story.

"It was looking pretty bad for us - your mom not being able to breathe and me with my messed up leg. I don't mind telling you that I was this close to giving up." Jet held up his hand, his pointer almost touching his thumb to show how close 'close' was. "But then your mother, she says to me: 'Jet, stop feeling sorry for yourself and get us out of here.'"

While Cathy couldn't see Jimmy's expression from where she stood, she could hear the excitement in his voice. "Then what happened?"

"Well, I realized that I was being stupid. So, I quickly came up with a plan - I figured that the only way to get us out of this alive, was for me to carry her up to the roof where we could get picked up by the helicopter."

"Didn't that hurt?"

Jet grinned. "Like a bi -" he cut himself off and Cathy was grateful that she wouldn't have to go out there and lecture him. "It hurt a lot. But I didn't let it stop me - there was only one chance at this and I couldn't let something like a banged up leg stop me."

Cathy found herself hanging on his every word even though she had been there. No wonder Jimmy liked listening to his stories! Jet was very good at this.

"So, I found the stairs that led up to the roof and I took them, one at a time. I wanted to get out of there before my strength gave out but I knew better than to rush - one fall and that would have been the end of it." He used his hands to demonstrate the fall and the clap startled Cathy into making a noise.

But Jet and Jimmy were too involved to notice it. "I was one step from the top when it happened. My leg cramped up. I knew that if we didn't get out of there now, we never would. So, I gathered up all my strength and made a final charge."

"And you got out?"

Jet nodded. "Yes. And not a second too soon."

Jimmy swung his fist in the air. "That was so cool, Jet! You're a real man - just like 002!"

Cathy covered her mouth to keep from laughing as Jet's expression became amused but pained. "Yeah."

"I want to be brave like that when I grow up." Jimmy was looking down now, his voice sounding almost sad. "I think I'd be scared to do what you did."

"What's wrong with that?"

Jimmy looked up again. "Huh?"

Jet put his hand on top of Jimmy's head and left it there. "Being brave doesn't mean not being scared. You'd have to be stupid to never be scared."

Her son didn't sound convinced. "I bet you weren't scared."

"I was. When things were looking bad in there, I was scared." Jet's expression was serious and his eyes were earnest. "I was afraid that I was going to die and that your mother was going to die because I wasn't smart enough to pay attention to what I was doing or strong enough to do what I went in to do."

He moved his hand from Jimmy's head to his shoulder. "It doesn't matter if you're scared - all that matters is if you can still do what you have to do. That's what being brave is."

"Well, I still don't think I could rescue someone from a burning building."

Jet smiled and took his hand back. "Not yet, but someday I'm sure you could." Then he grinned. "Just don't tell your mother I said so - she'd never forgive me for putting the idea in your head."

Jimmy laughed. "Okay."

Cathy watched them with a sense of longing. Why couldn't Jimmy's real father be more like that. She couldn't remember Daniel ever talking to Jimmy the way Jet had - she couldn't remember Daniel ever really talking to Jimmy at all. Daniel had talked 'at' Jimmy a lot - mostly consisting of 'Hey, you're blocking the TV!' - but never like this.

What she had just seen . . . this was what a father should be like.

For a moment, she pictured what it would have been like if someone like Jet had been Jimmy's father. It seemed like it would have been very . . . nice.

She shook her head. It didn't matter if Jet was a better father to Jimmy than Daniel was - she doubted that Jet would want to be Jimmy's father and she knew that she didn't really want him to be. Cathy was just letting her emotions take over. She was just being foolish.

Besides, Daniel might have been a terrible husband and he might not have been much of a father, but he had one thing going for him that Jet didn't: she loved him.

She didn't love Jet. She liked him, which was incredible enough, but she didn't love him.

At least, that's what she told herself as she entered the livingroom fully and told Jet and Jimmy that it was time to eat.


	18. Trouble in Paradise

(Author's note: Here is the new and approved Chapter 18. I wasn't completely happy with the ending of the original chapter 18 so's I's figured I'd change it. I appologize for the loooong wait . . . I shall try to be quicker in the future. Thanks go to GoldAngel2 for reBeta'ing this chapter and reviewing the first incarnation of it as well as WolfDaughter for reviewing the first incarnation.)

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For Jet's part, dinner felt very awkward. He now shared his space on the couch with Cathy and Jimmy because Cathy had said that he shouldn't have to eat alone. He had argued that it wasn't necessary for her and Jimmy to put themselves out for his sake and Cathy had said that they were going to eat with him and that was that.

Normally, Jet did not care for "and that is that" but he figured since it was her home and all that it was not really something worth fighting about.

It also felt awkward because no one was saying anything. Jimmy was too busy eating to talk. Cathy was looking straight ahead apparently too interested in watching whatever it was on the TV to talk. Sometimes, she did glance at him but was always quick to look away again. And, as for him, he just couldn't think of anything to say.

He was only glad that it was Jimmy who was sitting next to him and not his mother. Jet still hadn't decided just what had happened between them and he thought that it'd probably be best if he kept his distance in light of his contention that getting involved with Cathy was a very bad idea. The strange way that she was acting only supported that notion.

For Cathy's part, dinner felt very strained. She spent a great deal of her time pointedly not looking at Jet and pretending that she wasn't pointedly not looking at Jet. Every so often, she did happen to gaze in his direction and she wasn't sure how she felt about the fact that, more often than not, he was looking back at her.

She wasn't sure how to deal with it. Although she was firm in her decision not to let this . . . infatuation overtake her, she was left with the problem of not knowing how to act or what to do or what to say. She felt as though she couldn't trust herself to act like herself. One lapse in judgement had been more than enough.

But she could tell now that she wasn't handling the situation correctly. Cathy didn't want to date Jet, that much was true, but she thought that she wouldn't mind being his friend. What she was doing now . . . it was hurtful and very, very childish. And not very friendly at all.

So she would have to find another way to keep her distance - one that didn't involve pushing him away.

For Jimmy's part, dinner was uncomfortable and he was left to wonder if maybe he'd done something wrong. He couldn't think of what it was but it seemed to him that, if he hadn't done something wrong, Jet or his mom would be talking to him.

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Finally, Jet had had enough. After making all that fuss about how he shouldn't have to eat alone . . . with the way Cathy was ignoring him, he hardly thought it made a difference that she was here. It was very irritating - being alone, he could handle; being ignored was a whole other matter.

Why had she bothered to come out here if this was what she was going to do? It was especially annoying to him because he'd thought that they'd made some kind of headway as far as this strange . . . friendship? friendly acquaintance? thing was concerned.

What was her problem, anyway?.

Even Jimmy seemed to notice that something was wrong - at least, if the way he was silently staring at his plate was any indication. And, if a little kid realized something was off, than things were very off indeed.

Well, he wasn't about to stay still for this! "What's wrong with you?"

Cathy started slightly, guiltily, before glancing in his direction. "It's nothing. Nothing's wrong with me." Then she looked meaningfully down at Jimmy and shook her head.

Jet frowned. He didn't like being manipulated like this and, whatever Cathy's problem was, it wasn't likely to get any better by ignoring it, but he definitely didn't want to get into another verbal battle with her in front of Jimmy.

So he turned his gaze to the boy in question. Jimmy was obviously as uncomfortable as he was but his worried expression was quickly hidden by a smile when he noticed that he was being watched. "Hey, Jet."

It was times like this that Jet wished he knew how to make small talk. Still, he was never one to back away from a challenge and Jimmy did look like he wanted to talk. At least someone did. "Hey, Jimmy." There was his opening, now to follow it up with something. But what? " . . . Anything interesting happen at school?"

Jimmy's forced smile became something a bit more genuine. "Oh, lots! Mrs. Perin taught us times 4 today, although I'm still having some trouble with them, I think I'll get it soon. And, um, oh, Bobby's brother is getting out of jail soon . . ."

Jet listened to Jimmy's rambling and wondered what had brought this on. Did Jimmy really want to share every little thing that had happened at school or was he just trying to fill the silence with the sound of his voice? Jet figured that it was probably the latter - Jimmy liked to talk, but he was usually more . . . focused than this.

" - but the best part was at recess. Mike was picking on some first grader until I gave him the ol' 1, 2, 3 just like you showed me and he -" Jimmy broke off, realizing vital moments too late that he'd said too much.

Cathy, who hadn't seemed to be paying much attention up to this point, slowly turned to face them. "The old 1, 2. 3?" She asked, her expression as dangerously bland as her tone. "What's the old 1, 2, 3?"

Jimmy swallowed hard but raised his fists and awkwardly jabbed at the air. "The ol' 1, 2, 3."

Cathy nodded. "And Jet taught you that?" Anger seeped through her tightly controlled expression. "What else did he teach you?"

"Uh," Jimmy squirmed, not wanting to get Jet in trouble but not wanting to lie, "just some stuff."

"What stuff?" She no longer attempted to hide what she was feeling. "What has he been teaching you?"

"Uh," Jimmy said, casting a desperate look in Jet's direction.

Well, he tried to make it a point of helping people who asked. So much for not getting into any arguments tonight! "I taught him some punches; that's all."

Cathy stared at Jet for a long moment before turning her attention back to her son, her smile unnaturally tight. "Jimmy, why don't you go to your room. Jet and I have some things to discuss."

The speed that the boy did as he was ordered would have put Joe to shame. Not a surprise, Jimmy wasn't stupid and it was all too clear what he'd be in for if he'd stayed.

Once his bedroom door has shut behind him, Cathy frowned at Jet. "Have you been teaching Jimmy how to fight, Jet?"

No point in lying . . . too late and Jet wasn't in the habit of lying anyway. And why should he lie about this? Teaching a boy how to fight wasn't something to be ashamed of! "I just taught him some basics - enough to take care of himself."

It was the wrong answer. "So, it's your fault that Jimmy's been getting into so many fights lately!" She stood, her eyes blazing as she walked around the coffee table. "You actually went behind my back and did this - how dare you put Jimmy in danger - of all the stupid things!" She came to stand in front of him and she jabbed a finger at his face. "Where do you get off pulling something like this!"

"What the heck are you talking about?" Jet felt his own temper rise as what she had said penetrated more fully. "What do you mean, 'put Jimmy in danger'? You ought to be thanking me for taking the time to make sure he can take care of himself."

Incredibly, this only seemed to make her more angry. "That's not your job! Don't you think I know what's best for my son?"

Jet had not mastered the art of knowing when someone who was asking a question didn't want an honest answer or already had an answer in mind and, even if he had, at that moment, he was too annoyed with Cathy to care. "Obviously not if you think he's better off not knowing how to fight."

A few shocked chuckles escaped her. "So, you think I'm a bad mother because I don't want Jimmy to get into fights? Well, I'm sorry, but he's my son and I don't want him getting hurt - if you keep teaching him, he'll just get into more fights!"

Now it was Jet's turn to laugh. "So, you think if some kids wanna give Jimmy the shake down that they'll stop if he tells them he doesn't know how to fight? You're crazy - might as well tattoo 'victim' on his forehead and get it over with!"

"Oh, that's very clever!" Cathy exclaimed, giving him a couple of mock claps. "I'm sure you think all problems can be solved with a fist, don't you?"

Jet crossed his arms and took a deep breath in a last ditch effort to stay calm enough to salvage the situation. "It's better than depending on other people to save you all the time."

"That's just the kind of thing I'd expect to hear from a thug like you," Cathy said angrily, reminding him eerily of previous 'conversations' they'd had, "but I don't want Jimmy to be like you - I don't want him to get into fights or getting hurt. I want him to stay safe!"

The insult rolled off of Jet's back like so much water but what she'd said about Jimmy made his blood boil. "So, you want him to be a coward? You want him to run away when there's trouble? You want him to abandon people because there's a chance he might be hurt!"

"He's just a child," she argued. "He's not responsible for anyone, he's not even responsible for himself. He doesn't need to fight battles - he needs to focus on his schooling so he can get out of here when he grows up. I don't want him to end up another tough wandering the streets and mugging people. I want him to be someone."

Then she shook her head and continued, sounding drained. "Don't you understand? If he keeps on fighting, he'll never amount to anything."

Jet's anger wasn't as slow to fade. "All I know is that if I'd been as much of a coward as you want Jimmy to be, you'd be dead right now; maybe you should think about that."

Her expression darkened and, for a moment it appeared that she was going to shout again but she only sighed. "Maybe I should." She picked up the dinner dishes and started towards the kitchen before stopping short. "It's not only the fact that you were teaching him how to fight that makes me angry, you know?"

"Oh?" Jet asked, not entirely certain that he was interested. He wasn't really angry any more but he was still annoyed with her for being so dense and refusing to see sense. It wasn't as if what he was saying should be news to her. "And what would else?" he challenged, making no effort to hide his irritation.

Cathy turned, her smile brittle. "You did this behind my back. You didn't even think of asking _my _opinion - you just went ahead and did it."

He frowned, ignoring the faint twinge of guilt he felt. "What good would that have done? You would have said no." 'And I would have taught him anyway,' he finished silently.

"I'm his mother, Jet," she said tiredly, defeatedly, shaking her head as she turned away. "The decision should have been mine."

Jet watched he go before twisting back around to glare at the television set. That woman! He'd known that this wouldn't last - this calmer, saner Cathy he'd seen earlier. He'd known that they would be at each other's throats again. He just hadn't expected it to be so soon over something so stupid.

Cathy was insane. That was all there was to it. Well, at the very least, she had some strange ideas about fighting. She actually thought that Jimmy, of all people, would end up a criminal just because he knew how to throw a few punches?

It was ridiculous. And it was insulting to her son - hadn't she been listening to what Jimmy had said he'd used the "ol' 1, 2, 3' for? Didn't Jimmy tell her the reasons for all the fights he'd been in lately? Or did she just not listen? She shouldn't be upset that Jimmy was getting into fights - she should be proud that her son was sticking up for other people. True, the kid would have to learn to pick his opponents better, but it was the thought that counted.

She was also insulting herself. If she actually believed that learning how to defend himself would erase the good, caring little boy she'd managed to raise, she was really stupid.

Well, if he did manage to have a civil conversation with the woman again, he'd have to set her straight about that. For Jimmy's sake if not for her's. Not that he expected to get anywhere if she was determined not to listen to reason.

Although, his conscience spoke up at last, that wasn't the only reason she'd blown up at him.

'You did this behind my back . . . I'm his mother, the decision should have been mine.'

Jet exhaled loudly and closed his eyes. Cathy had some warped ideas about fighting but maybe she had had some reason to be upset. He wasn't fond of people doing things behind his back either. Maybe he should have made the effort to explain his position to her. While he didn't think he would have respected her wishes about this matter had he asked and she said no, it still might have been better to have everything out in the open.

Opening his eyes, Jet shrugged to himself as he reached for the remote. There wasn't a whole lot he could do about that now - no amount of 'should have's would change what had already happened. Still, as he flicked through the channels in search of something to watch, he accepted the fact that this conversation with Cathy was far from over. He just hoped that she'd be in the mood to listen.

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Cathy's face was warm with spent anger as she walked into the kitchen and eased the door shut behind her. Slowly, she made her way to the sink and deliberately set the dishes in the sink, making certain that they didn't so much as clink together as she set them down. She turned on the water and stared sightlessly as water pooled over the dirty dishes.

She supposed that she should be grateful. At least she hadn't been completely wrong about Jet: he was a delinquent. Whatever other qualities he possessed, he was still the sort of man who thought that problems were best solved with fists. There was no way she'd ever consider being with a man like that. A man who actually thought that she was a bad mother because she didn't want her son to get into fights.

Not that it matter because she hadn't even wanted to consider being with Jet in the first place.

She shook her head and shut off the water. If that was true, why did she feel so . . . disappointed when she'd realized what Jet had done? Maybe the pendulum had swung the other way and she'd put the man, the boy on a pedestal because he'd saved her life. Maybe she'd been so caught up in looking at the good things, she'd forgotten the bad ones. Even so, there was still no reason for her to feel disappointed in Jet because he'd failed to live up to unreasonable expectations she hadn't realized she'd had.

Of course, just because she had no reason to be disappointed, it didn't change the fact that she was.

Or the fact that what Jet did, going behind her back and teaching Jimmy how to fight, really ticked her off. With more force than was necessary, she started to scrub the dishes as she fumed. What was it with men, really? Was it some kind of John Wayne complex that made them all think that the only way to make it in this world was to hit something? Or shoot something?

If the world was like a Dirty Harry movie, maybe violence would do some good; but the world wasn't like a movie. Things were never that simple. Here, in the real world, the only thing violence was good for was to create more violence. A vicious cycle that would never end until people realized what they were doing to themselves.

Violence was the language of the street. Gang members and drug dealers who spent their time proving their superiority with their fists and nothing else. A world filled with people who didn't care about bettering themselves. People who didn't care, period.

Cathy would give anything to make sure that her son wouldn't become one of those people. She'd do anything to keep Jimmy safe from all that.

'So, you want him to be a coward . . . You want him to abandon people because there's a chance he might be hurt?'

Her grip on the wash cloth tightened. Just because she wanted Jimmy to focus on school work instead of on fighting didn't mean that she wanted him to be a coward! There were other ways to be brave. Martin Luther King and Ghandi didn't have to beat people up to be brave - hitting things didn't make a person brave: standing up for what they believed in did. That was what she wanted for Jimmy; not these school yard fights that would lead him on a path he wouldn't be able to return from.

If only she could make Jet understand that!

She laughed bitterly. Oh, now she was back to 'if only's! Great. Well, it didn't matter how many 'if only's she threw around; someone like Jet would never understand. Although, a calmer part of her reminded, considering what she guessed about Jet's past, his actions shouldn't have been a surprise.

It was clear that he hadn't had an easy life even before what had been done to him by those Black Ghost people. It was possible, likely, that Jet had lived the life she was trying so hard to protect Jimmy from. From what she'd seen just by looking around her, if you lived on the streets and couldn't throw a punch, you'd be eaten alive. Looking at it that way, she supposed, to Jet's mind, he really had been doing Jimmy a favor. Giving him a vital life skill.

Cathy sighed and dropped the cloth back into the water. So, she'd gone from 'violence doesn't solve anything' to 'violence keeps you alive' . . . did that make her a hypocrite or someone who just didn't know how to think things all the way through?

She didn't know. In the end, she supposed that it didn't really matter. In the end, it didn't even matter who was right and who was wrong. What did matter was getting through the next couple of days with as few problems as possible. Since she had already offered to put him up until Dr. Gilmore arrived and since she didn't want to spend the rest of the time he was here sniping with him, she would just have to forgive him.

While she was still upset that Jet had done what he'd done without asking her permission, she knew that forgiveness would be the only way to make the next few days bearable.

It was the only way but she wished, as she made her way to the livingroom, that someday, someone would say they were were sorry _before_ she forgave them.

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To be continued . . . With luck, sooner rather than later :)


	19. Shades of Gray

(Author's note: Finally, I have for you a completely new chapter. But, before we get to that, I'd like to thank GoldAngel2 for betaing and Kris Ice for her contributions to the finished product. I'd also like to thank those who reviewed the new and improved chapter 18: WolfDaughter and Lyless and lockesilver. Thank you! And, to answer the former's question, you get Chapter 19 now >smile> )

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Cathy made her way into the livingroom, not entirely certain what she was going to say but secure in the knowledge that, if she didn't take care of this now, things would just get more complicated. She couldn't deny that she had a certain number of misgivings about her plan and not only because she would basically be pretending that she wasn't angry when she was and that Jet was right when he wasn't. While she had argued with Jet in the past, she didn't really know how long it took him to calm down afterwards and he hadn't seemed all that calm when she'd left.

She wasn't interested in getting into another shouting match with the boy; this would be hard enough for her without Jet being in a snit.

Jet was watching TV and he didn't seem to notice her until she was standing right in front of him. Once he noticed her presence, he stared at her warily, as if he thought she was going to start tearing into him at any moment. "Hey, Cathy."

Either he wasn't mad anymore or he was very good at hiding it. Either way, maybe there wouldn't be any shouting after all. "Jet," she greeted coolly, trying to ignore her own anger. Before she had a chance to change her mind, she forged on. "Look, I know that you only did what you thought was right so, I . . . I forgive you."God, how she hated saying that! But at least it was done now.

Or was it? He was frowning at her, his eyes narrowed, and he sounded a bit sarcastic when he spoke. "Really? Because you still look upset to me."

Why'd he have to choose now to be observant! Cathy's lips quirked up at the corners in an approximation of a reassuring smile. "I'm fine," she lied.

Jet didn't look at all convinced but he only shook his head and shrugged. "Well, glad to hear it because we've got to set a few things straight."

"Oh?" She fought back the urge to sigh with difficultly. Should have known that he wouldn't make this easy for her. Frankly, she wasn't all that interested in hearing what he had to say but she felt committed because she'd already said that she'd forgiven him. He didn't look like he believed her as it was; she didn't want to take the chance of having to say it again. "What?"

She had a couple of ideas about what topic he might want to discuss but Jet, as usual it seemed, managed to surprise her again.

"We've got to talk about Jimmy."

"Jimmy?" she repeated after a second's pause. What in the world could this be about? Was Jet going to try and defend his actions? If so, why? She'd already forgiven him; what was the point? Unless he just wanted to call her a bad mother again. Her jaw tightened and she struggled not to say anything besides: "What about Jimmy?"

"You've got it all wrong," he said firmly, "about Jimmy, I mean." He held out his hands in a placating gesture. "I know that you probably don't want to talk about this but all I ask is that you hear me out. All right?"

Cathy crossed her arms, letting her growing irritation show. Didn't they already 'talk' about this? But the alternative was to have another argument and she figured that letting Jet ramble would probably be quicker. "Fine."

He looked almost surprised - he had expected more resistance - before nodding. "All right. You remember that fight that Jimmy got into yesterday?" Without giving her a chance to answer, he pressed on. "Yesterday, he took on three older kids he saw on the way to the Sweet Pot. They pushed him into the dirt," he said, demonstrating with his hands, "but Jimmy didn't back off. Even though he was outnumbered and outmatched, he still didn't run away." His gaze turned into a hard, challenging stare. "Did Jimmy tell you why he got into that fight in the first place?"

She shook her head. It wasn't a lie: Jimmy hadn't told her. It also wasn't completely honest: Jimmy hadn't told her because she hadn't given him the chance to explain. She'd been too busy lecturing to listen to what he had to say. For a brief moment, she felt a pang of shame -

Why was she feeling guilty? It was still Jet's fault that Jimmy had gotten into that fight at all - from the sound of things, Jet had been there and had stepped back and done nothing. What was wrong with that boy! Didn't he care about Jimmy at all? Before she could rail at him, not getting into another argument be damned, Jet had started speaking again.

"Well, I'll tell you. He got into that fight because those older kids had ganged up on a boy younger than Jimmy - stole his doll or something. So, you see, Jimmy got into that fight because he'd wanted to help someone who couldn't help himself." He looked at her meaningfully. "He got into that fight because he his sense of justice wouldn't let him just walk by.

"And tonight, when Jimmy was talking about the ol' 1, 2, 3, he'd used it on some kid who was picking on a first grader." Jet's hands settled back down onto his lap and he shook his head again. "You can't tell me that you aren't proud that he actually cares about people. You should be happy that he's brave enough to do what's right even if there is a chance he could get hurt."

Cathy was almost as stunned by the depth of emotion in Jet's voice as she was by what Jet had said. Prior to this point, she'd believed that she had been completely right and that Jet hadn't had a leg to stand on. She'd thought that violence never solved anything and there was no good reason to get into fights. She'd thought that mindless heroics were the worst kind of garbage and that you had to look out for yourself because no one else would.

And a part of her still believed it, holding on to it tightly, like it was a piece of drift wood in the middle of a turbulent sea. However, there was a growing part of her that was leaning towards the idea that maybe she'd been wrong; that it wasn't quite as black and white as she wanted to believe. After all, hadn't she benefitted from mindless heroics? Wasn't that the reason why she was standing here right now? And if she didn't want to think about that, maybe she ought to think about why she'd been stuck in the hotel in the first place. She'd had every opportunity to leave and save herself but she hadn't.

Hadn't she been trying to perform some mindless heroics of her own? Hadn't she put herself in danger to try and save someone else? How was that any different that what Jimmy was doing?

She was still upset that Jet had gone behind her back and rightfully so. She still didn't want Jimmy to get hurt. She still thought that his best bet to become someone was to focus on his school work and go to college someday.

But she couldn't deny that, in the end and despite her misgivings, she did feel a little proud of her son for caring so much about other people. Proud that she had managed to raise such a good person.

She still had a lot of things to think about and Jet appeared tired of waiting for her to figure it out. "He's a good kid," he said with a hint of desperation, as though he was trying, one last time, to convince her. "I haven't known him very long but I do know that much." He turned his gaze away from her, looking almost embarrassed. "And, even though she has some very weird ideas, he's got a good mom too."

He turned his attention back to Cathy, his expression as earnest as she'd ever seen it. "He's not very good at picking his opponents yet and he doesn't know more than a couple punches but he already knows the most important thing about being a real fighter and a real man: honor." Jet half smiled and looked away again. "Something that took me a long time to learn."

Shaking his head, he crossed his arms, looking uncomfortable and annoyed. "Anyway," he said brusquely, "the point is that Jimmy's a good kid and no amount of street fighting's gonna change that."

Cathy had known before now that Jet liked her son. She'd known before now that he cared about her son. But she hadn't quite realized before now just how fond of her little boy he really was. And, as she absorbed this somewhat shocking revelation, she realized something else: Jet hadn't defended his own actions. With everything he'd said, he hadn't mentioned himself at all. All he'd cared about was getting her to see where Jimmy was coming from with all the fighting.

And that Jimmy wouldn't become a bad person because of it.

"You really care about him, don't you?"

Jet looked startled and even more uncomfortable than he had before. Then he shrugged, his face shifting into that nonchalant expression that he seemed so fond of. "He's a good kid," he stated, sounding strangely noncommital for a man who'd just spent so much time trying to convince her of this same fact.

Part of her wanted to press and get him to admit what his true feelings were. Maybe it was a mite hypocritical of her, but she couldn't see why he couldn't just say what he felt like a normal person. Why did he have to be so difficult!

But she knew, as possibly rewarding as that exercise might be, there were other things that she needed to say first.

"You weren't wrong about everything though," Jet sighed, beating her to it. "I would have taught him anyway but I should have come to you first." He snorted. "Even though you probably wouldn't have listened considering how much you hated me."

Cathy had to admit that he was probably right about that - that she wouldn't have listened. However, he was wrong about one thing. "I never actually hated you, you know."

He titled his head. "You could have fooled me."

She offered him a smile. "Oh, I wasn't very fond of you and you annoyed me a great deal but I never hated you. I just thought you needed to grow up."

Jet raised his eyebrows. "You shouldn't talk about your elders that way."

Chuckling, she shook her head. "Maybe not, but it's what I thought." Then she sobered. "I meant what I said before, about Jimmy. I don't want him to fight and I don't want him to get hurt. I understand that you've probably had to fight to survive but Jimmy doesn't."

Since they were being so honest with each other, she decided to try and explain like a rational person her position. Maybe she wouldn't be able to make Jet understand but at least she could say that she'd tried. "I don't want Jimmy to be a coward but not fighting doesn't make him one. There are other ways to stand up for what you believe in and I want Jimmy to be able to do that - stand up for himself without hitting people." She shook her head. "Because, in the end, fighting never really solves anything. You hit them; they hit you and it never ends."

Jet considered it for a few moments. "You've got a point," he admitted, "but there are a lot of people out there who won't give you that choice. You either fight back or they pound you into the ground like you're nothing." He uncrossed his arms. "There are people out there who'll kill you as soon as look at you and you need to be prepared. You might not win but you can make sure that they have to work for it and maybe take a few of them with -"

He stopped abruptly and seemed to realize that he was talking a bit louder than he needed to. "Well, you see what I mean," he said awkwardly. "I just want to make sure Jimmy's prepared."

Cathy did her best to hide her pity because she knew that Jet would not appreciate it. It was just so sad that Jet honestly believed that being able to fight was the only way to stay alive. And, judging from what she guessed about his past and whatever he and his friends needed to do to escape Black Ghost, it was clear that life had given him little reason to believe otherwise.

"Jet," she said once she trusted herself not to sound as sad as she felt, "I still don't believe that fighting is the way to solve your problems and, like I said, I don't like Jimmy getting into fights. But I," how to put this, "I misjudged your motives."

At his puzzled expression, she elaborated. "I had thought that you didn't care whether or not Jimmy got hurt and that you were just encouraging him to hurt other people." She managed a half smile, "I don't agree with everything you've said and I don't think that Jimmy will have to worry about half the things you think he needs to worry about but you are right: he is a good boy and I should be proud of him."

She leaned forward and placed her hand on Jet's shoulder. "I'm sorry I snapped at you before."

He smiled, shaking his head. "You don't have to do that." Then he got a sort of pained look on his face as he covered her hand with his own. "I guess I'm sorry too - I shouldn't have called you a bad mother. And I shouldn't have taught Jimmy without trying to tell you."

Cathy's smile became wide and genuine as she realized what she'd heard. Despite how often she'd forgiven Daniel, she wasn't one who easily let go of her grudges. She tended to want people who made her suffer suffer too. This time, she was more than willing to make an exception. "Okay."

"What?"

"I forgive you." It really was different when someone apologized first! Then she pulled her hand away and waggled her finger at him, partly so he knew he wouldn't be getting off so easily and partly to try and lighten this emotional mood they'd found themselves in. "Just make sure you don't try pulling something like this again."

"I won't." Was it just her imagination or did Jet's smile look a little sad? "You can count on it."

a.

a.

a.

a.

To be continued . . .


End file.
